.- APRIL 1968 VOL. 4 NO.3

IN THIS ISSUE20¢GITLIN ON CUBA

STOP THE DRAfT WEEK"BLACK PANTHERS

ORANGEBURG MASSACRELAUREL, MISS. STRIKE

BLACK MOVEMENT:

REPRESSION AND RESISTANeE

\

Rap Brown (left) and Bobby Seale at Huey Newton's birthday party

On Wednesday, February 21, Rap Brown was arrested and charged with violating hisbail restrictions. SUbsequently he was charged with threatening the life of an FBI agent.These new charges and the excessive bail totaling $100,000 are seen as a clear signalthat the government is planning to lock up black militants before next summer. ArthurKinoy, Rap's lawyer, talked about these new developments at a meeting of the steeringcommittee to combat repression the weekend of Feb. 24. These are the facts:

THE MOVEMENT PRESS4A9 14TH STREETSAN FRANCisco, CA. 94103

. & MrS. Grant Cannon907 Klatte Road'ncinnati~, Ohio 45244

Two BondsRap (was) on two bonds:(1) Louisiana FEDERAL court: phony

charge of carrying arms across stateline while under indictment. Absolutelyuncom,titutional. ,Kinoy notes a convic­tion on this has never been sustainedto our knOWledge.) Bond on this chargepermitted him to speak with the court'spermission.

(2) Virginia FEDERAL court: he wasbailed out pending an appeal of extra­dition from Maryland to Virginia basedon charges of •'inciting to riot,. incitingto arson." Bond restricted him to South­ern District of N.Y. except to consultwith attorneys. This is now on appeal tothe Supreme Court on the basis of FirstAmendment violation. If the restrictionis sustained, preventative arrest willhave been sanctioned at the highest courtlevel.

But the government wasn't satisfied.On Wednesday, February 21, the gov­ernment took a huge step. Rap had tosign an "in forma pauperus" paper forhis Supreme Court appeal, Kunstler (alsohis lawyer) was in California, so he wentthere. Whil~ there, he spoke publicly.The government swore out an arrestwarrant on the La. and Va. bond restric­tions. Kin 0 y pointed out that the re­striction didn't say Rap couldn't speakpublicly while visiting his lawyer. OnTuesday, February 20 he was arrestedin New York City. The government wantedto ship him right down to Louisiana. Rapdemanded to see a lawyer. New York Fea­eral judge refused to send Rap tCl La. under

a $100,000 bond as requested by the gov­ernment. The federal judge in N.Y. re­leased him and instructed him to go toLouisiana.

In Louisiana

In Louisiana. Judge heardgovernment'sapplication to revoke bail Wednesday, Feb­ruary 21. Four FBI agents testified theyheard Rap speak in California. During thehearing, as Rap's lawyer was giving hissummation, - the government interruptedto say they were filing charges of a highfelony against Rap. THIS WAS A WHOLENEW CHARGE. According to one of theseFBI agents, Rap had threatened his lifeduring court recess. This is not true andthere are 10 witnesses to the fact thatRap said: "You are a Tom and I hopeyour children don't grow up like you."

His bail in La. previously had been $15,000. At this time, $5,000 was forfeitedas a fine for violation of bail restric:tions. $40,000 was added to the remain-

MONEY MONEY MONEYThe same old refrain. We're sorry,

but we're also desperate. We owe $900in back rent, close to another $900 inprinting bills. WE NEED HELPI If youwant to see the Movement newspapercontinue, now is the time to think seri­ously about sending a contribution, agenerous contribution. We don't want tofold, people, but we've got to have moresupport. Write to us. Send $$. The Move­ment, 449 14th St., San Francisco, Calif.94103.

ing $10,000 making for a total of $50,000on the original charge.

Rap was then taken'before a U.S. Com­missioner on the high felony charge ­threatening the life of the FBI guy. Another$50,000 bail was set. Now the total bail is$100,000. The federal judge told Kunstlerthat he did this to keep Rap from goingaround the country burning down cities.

Virginia

Then on Friday, Rap was taken to Vir­ginia. Bail there was revoked completely.No new bail was set. When no bail is set,general procedure is for the prisonerto stay in that (Virginia) jail. But thejudge took the position that Louisianacourts had precedence over the Va. courts.(Our interpretation is that Virginia is tooclose to Black D.C. and Rap was there­fore shipped back to- Louisiana where itis much harder for the Movement to rallysupport forces.)

The day the $100,000 was set, theyfiled emergency application for an im­mediate hearing on the setting of reason­

. able bond pending a full hearing.THERE IS A NEW AND QUALITIA ­

TIVE CHANGE IN FEDERAL COURTSACTIONS: The decision has been madethat in response to uprisings and' 'fair-

er" reports of the causes (e.g., newjersey, president's commission) the gov­ernment will jail militant black leadersas soon as possible. This has been madeknown to the courts and the courts areresponding.

Note: the charges in this (and so manyother cases) are so obviously untenablein trials or on various appeals, that theyaren't even worrying any more about theframe ups themselves. Bail is being usedinstead, way before any of this comesto trial.

What We DoRap is fasting and seems determined

to stick with it. This term of the SupremeCourt (the only place where he could pos­sibly get any relief on this bail) will beover in 2 months. Then he's in till the mid­dle of next fall at the earliest. The chancesof his dying in jail are very real, as arethe chances of our losing this court fight.(Kinoy noted he's never been surer of therightness of his case or more frightenedof finding no way to win it.) SO .•.

Our only chance is a massive publiccampaign to put some political counter­pressure on the court. This campaign isnecessary to expose what's really goingon, to mobilize, and to try to get himout in time. •

BULK RATSU. a. PO.TAIlB

PAID8.n FnncllCO, Cllilf.

Permit No. 8603

S j7 ::

'PAGE 2 THE MOVEMENT APR~8

BOBBYSEALESPEAKS

Brothers and sisters, 1 want to havethe chance to tell you in a large masssomething about Brother Huey P. New­ton - a Black man that I've been knowingfor about eight years; a Black man whofirst introduced me to what Black Na­tionalism was all about; a Black manthat I've been closely associated with forthe last few years.

To explain to you who Brother Huey P.Newton is, in his soul, I've got to explainto you also your soul, your needs, yourpolitical desires and needs, because thatis Huey's soul. You know,l met Huey andhe told me that he first learned how to

A Program for Whites

Bobby Seale spoke about Huey and hisstruggle, the struggle of all Black people(see text of his speech below). Also speak­ing at the Saturday night rally was BobAvakian, a representative ofthe Peace andFreedom Party, and the only white per­son to speak extensively. He spoke aboutthe need for the white community to beginorganizing itself, because thus far therehas been. no. organization or white move­ment to which the Black Movement couldeven talk. The Black Movement should nottrust us, but it should watch us with askeptical eye and see if the whites canorganize itself to destroy that racismon which this country, ruled by whitemen, is based.

ter, Rap Brown will be'Minister of Justice,and Forman will be Minister of ForeignAffairs. Forman also explained how theBlack community must respond to the mur­dering of its people, especially its lead­erS ..• retribution and retaliation. Pow-;er plants, cops, and for Huey, "the sky'sthe limit'" Rap Brown emphasized theneed to do more than think about survival.He talked about having to prepare thecommunity for the upcoming battle, bothmentally and physically. We can't let theMan walk over us any longer, we can'tbe "chumps."

Black UnityStokely Carmichael urged that the Black

community start getting itself together,to unify itself against the Man and all histricks. Be emphasized that "every Negrois a potential Black man." there is no timeto talk about artificial divisions within thecommunity, such as talking about middleclass, lower class, because there is onlyone class in the Black ghetto, the coloni­zed. Black men were brought to this coun­try and were maintained as an internalcolony to serve the white man. Now, how­ever, Stokely stressed, the white man nolonger needs Black people to do his work,and there is a history of genocide in this

THE MAN DOESN'T HAVE US OUTNUMBERED,country.

He also stated that the Black Movementmust become allied with their Third Worldbrothers in the struggle against theircommon oppressor, Racism and Imperial­ism, the United States. In order to buildand maintain that struggle the Black ~om­munity would have to organize itself, bybuilding a community of strength where

'the people are more important than theindividual ... "first our people, then youand me."

..Survival

The emphasis of the rally was onsurvival, survival through the summer,survival of the Black people in this coun­try. The Black people must get together,to support Huey, to support and protectthemselves as a community. This was theexhortation of the leaders. James Formanannounced the merger of SNCC and theBlack Panthers. The form of organizationis to be based on that of the Panthers.Stokely Carmichael will be Prime Minis-

A birthday party was held in the Oak­land Auditorium for Huey P. Newton,the imprisoned leader of the Black Pan­thers. On this evening of February 17,six thousand people, both Black and white,gathered to support Huey, and to hear whatsome of the leaders of the Black Move­ment had to say to them. Sitting on thestage, waiting to speak to their people

,about Huey and what his imprisonmentmeant to the Black community, wereJ ames Forman, Rap Brown, Bobby Sealeof the Black Panthers, and Stokely Car­michael. Eldridge Cleaver of the BlackPanthers acted as moderator for theevent.

,

EDITORIAL

WHERE IT'S AT

When Whites Get Serious

What white radicals must learn is thatthey must stop getting uptight everytimethey think that they aren't getting enoughlove and attention from Blacks, theymust think seriously about where theirown movements are going.

This means we must stop looking at theBlack movement for leadership and buildstrategies and programs out of our ownexperiences and needs.

White radicals must also begin to thinkin serious terms about their role thissummer. Programatically their must besuch things as efforts to: 1) build educa­tional programs integrated into the anti­war" anti-:draft and student movementsto combat and neutralize racism, 2)build,in areas of strength, toward providingdivergences to police when the rebellionsbegin, 3) build a national legal, financial,propaganda aparatus to combat the in­creasing repression, and 4) organize asmany people as possible into structuredunits that will be able to provide materialr.esources (food, medical supplies, news­papers, etc.) to ghetto residents whenthe attacks start.

These kinds of activities can providethe basis for tactical black-white coali­tions. They provide Blacks with sorelyneeded practical support and they pro­vide white radicals with incentives tobuild themselves organizationally.•

spending all of its time defending HueyNewton. If thiS happens it will ceaseto be independent group and useful allyand will degenerate into just anotherliberal support group. We are not sug­gesting that Huey should not be defendedby as many people as possible; but thatthe defense should be carried on as anintegrated part of an organization's pro­gram and should not be an end in itself.This is the only basis under which co­alitions have real, long-term meaningfor all parties of the coalition.

Tactical Coalitions Only

participation politically have been ex­tremely unhealthy. We have thought interms of fighting other peoples' battlesfor so long that it has become difficultto translate our own alienation into apolitics that says real revolutionarystruggle is ior 'our'o'wn liberation. Theremust be a realization that ultimately ourown survival is at stake too, and our ef­forts must be toward bUilding a liberationmovement in our own community.. -- _.-

This has been one of the problemsamong radicals in trying to graft the Blackmovement's program onto their own. Thefact of the matter is that whites are notan oppressed minority (or opposedethnic group) in this country. A libera­tion movement of white people has to bea CLASS movement, one organized anddeveloped out of a class analysis, for thepurpose of overthrowing the present socialsystem. When a movement like that existsit can then relate to the Black movementaround a common goal.

THE MOVEMENT is published monthly by The Movement Press, 449.14th Street,San Francisco, California 94103, 626-4577.

EDITORIAL GROUP: Lincoln Bergman, Joe Blum, Marilyn Buck, Terrence Cannon,Bobbi Cieciorka, Jerry Densch, Karen Jo Koonan, Gayle Markow, Jeff Segal, MorganSpector, Buddy Stein, Karen Waldo Arlene E. Bergman. PHOTO: Jeffrey Blankfort

LOS ANGELES: Bob Niemann, 1657FederaIAve.#5, Los Angeles, Calif. 90025, 478-9509.

CHICAGO EDITORIAL GROUP:Linda Friedman, Warren Friedman, Hilda Ignatin, Noel Ignatin, Mike James, AnneO'Brian. PHOTOGRAPHY: Chicago Film Co-op, Nanci Hollander, Tom Ma1ear,Dolores Varela. 4533 N. Sheridan Rd., Chicago, m., 60640, 334-8040.SUBSCRIPTIONS:$2 per year, individual copies: $7 per hundred per month, bulk subscriptions.

White radicals played an importantrole in the development of the civil rightsmovement but the consequences of that

Our Own Liberation

This reaction to Stokely's speech isthen compounded by the lack of responseto Bobby Seale's speech. Seale, chair­man of the Panthers, presented whatshould have been, for white radicals,the most important speech of the even­ing (see text on page 2 ). He presenteda concrete political program which radi­cals could relate to, dealing with theissues of housing, education, police con­trol, etc. And up to this point not one ofthe much vaunted 'left and undergroundpress has given it any play at all. Ourown newspapers it seems, have yet toshake some of the basic principles thatmotivate the monopoly press and wouldrather deal in sensationalism for the In the 'meantime white radicals shouldpurpose of selling papers than seriously realize that the only Black-white coali-dealing with the political relations be- tions that are going to exist are tacticaltween Blacks and whites in this country. coalitions in which there is a coming to-

However, we do not mean to say, as a gether for specific, short term goals ingood many radicals have been saying, that which each organization involved has itsthere was a huge gap between the words of own independent constituency and is in theBobby Seale and the words of StokelyCar- co a Ii t ion for the purpose of addingmichael. For' the speeches, we think, strengths together. One of the few coali-should be seen as complements to each tions of this type has been the one be-other. One talks about the need for unity . tween the California Peace and Freedomand the concept of organizing around Party and the Panthers. The PFP has or-blackness and the other lays out the con- ganized itself around political issues andcrete political program necessary to build has managed to avoid the pitfalls of cater-that unity. Any other view is a gross mis- ing to Blacks that would undercut itsinterpretation of where Black people are own viability (as was not the case withat. the NCNP). When the PFP and the Pan-

What else did Stokely say? He talked thers began to negotiate it was as inde-about allies; Mexican-Americans, Puerto pendent groups, each with its own strengthsRicans, other non-white minorities in this and needs. A functional coalition re-country and Black people all. over the suIted. But, there is a danger that theworld. What, no wh~tes? And ,the answer PF P will be drawn into rh" rr-fck b"g of ,is simp~: there IS 00 w~re ra&cal ••~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.movement in this country that has de­veloped enough organizational disciplineto offer Blacks any reason for expect­ing . real aid in a fight for survival.Black people are struggling for theirexistance and every ounce of their energymust be spent on that struggle. To playpolitical games ~ith radicals is suicidal.

is its effect on Black people, and Stokely'sspeech moved Black people. For radicalsto pick apart the speech as if it were agovernmental document or part of anesoteric left-wing ideological paper is tosorely miss the point and displays an in­credible lack of savvy on the part of thewhite radical movement.

Where Whites Can Relate

The firSt and· most basic thing thatmust be under.stood is that Stokely ,(andfor that matter all of the speakers)were NOT talking to white people. He wastalking to Black people about a problemsupremely important to Black people -­their survival. The heart of the speechwas the need for Black community andBlack unity to defend against the attacksof the Man that will be coming down thissummer. Preparations are now beingmade by the Government for the waging ofa full scale war of genocide against Blackpeople in this country (to complement itsactivities in Viet Nam), and Stokely'sspeech was designed to begin to preparefor the fight that must be waged thissummer. Black unity was its purpose andBlack unity was its result.

The most important thing to consider,then, in dealing with Stokeley's speech

What happened that night at the Oaklandauditorium when people heard the speechand what has been their reaction since?Clearly, for Black people the contentswere simple and easy to deal with -­it's about where they are at and what'sin their heads and guts. The initial re­action for most white radicals to thespeech has been confUSion, betrayal, angerand exclusion. Which, unfortunately, tellsa lot about where the anti-war and stu­dent movements are at. So, let's take alook at that speech and see what it'sreally about.

Not Talking to Whites

The Black Panther PaTty for Self De­~ence and SNCC had a birthday party forHuey Ne'llt:o:l, jailed minister of defense;fol' the Panthers, in Oakland, February 17.

The 'party' was organized for the pur­pose of building up support for HueyNewton's defense and to publicly announcethe merging of SNCC and the Panthers.Speaking that evening were Jim Forman,Rap Brown and Stokely Carmichael ofSNCC and Bobby Seale and EldridgeCleaver of the Panthers.

The merger was announced by Cleaverand Forman but none of the details werediscussed, leaving us with very littleinformation on which to base a judgmentabout its significance. The most pub­licized and controversial event of theevening was StokelY's speech. This washis first public appearance in the bay areasince his return from an extensive worldtour and people were eager to hear whathe would have to say.

Reactions

APRIL 1968 THE MOVEMENT PAGE 3

HE HAS US OUT ORGANIZED

HUEY NEWTON SPEAKS- HIS 'MINDStukely Carmichael and Bobby Seale

COME ON NOW!

:\s for M. L. King's plan for civildisobedience in \\';lshingtol1, Huey hal!this to say. "Dr. King is working with thePrime Minister of the Black PantherParty, Stokely Carmichael. If the dem­onstration is anything like what happenedin Washington on the last dE)monstration,(Summer 1963) it would be another clownShow and very ineffective. Gut I feelthat Stokely Carmichael and Dr. Kinghave reviewed that situation and won'tlet it happen again. So I have hopes thatthe demonstration will be effective thiStime.

"I read in the papers that the JusticeDepartment has stated that they are readyto deal with Dr. King . . . I will saythat if the Justice Department will be theassailer, then I assure you there will beviolence. l1ecause I'm certain that Stoke­ly Carmichael would not turn the othercheck as has been preachea some yearsagu. I think the time for that is over."

c, Again, if the situation continues as itis now, and that's the oppressive situa­tion, if the police are ,IS brutal as ever,I'm sure that black people will take careof themselves - defend themselves ­if the establishment does not change itsways of provoking liS." ..

March on Washington

chargin~ the Legisldture with makln!l irimpossible for bldck people to defendthemselves against the brutal force thatbas been used by tbe police. and themilitary. For instance, in Detruit andl\'ewark.

"We thought Sacramento W;lS the ap­propriate place because that's where thelaws were made. We dlso knew that ourgrievance would be heard ... We wantedto warn people that prison camps exist.As a matter of fact, the same ones thatwere used fa,:" the J apdnese - they'll beused for black people in the near future.

"We weren't looking for a confronta­tion at the Capital. If we were fired upon,1 had given orders to fire in return. Butif we were not fired upon, we would takean arrest. We gave up the guns knowing,that they wOllld be returned. This wasnot an appropriate place for a confron­tation and we knew thiS very well. Ourpurpose was to deliver a message andthe message was delivered very effec­tively."

and hoodlums. In Llct. them dudes !L'okjust like me. In f;lct 1 know George Dow,in fact 1 know Bobby I lutton, Hey man, 1know that dude over there. fley m;ln. whatyou cats Chlin,! with them rods? In otherwords, when the m'ln c,ills us nigger fell"400 ycars, with all the derogaton' ,,,n­notations. lluey was smart en"u"'h I"knml' thaI Black people were :.::"i n,' t" sa\'.c'TIH'1,1,e been l~,lllin~~ us niiC'_'l:r~. tlllle"and hoodlulllS for 40U year-, Th,ll" II"difference to r.le. I'm g,oin~ l'hl"'~ "IIIwhat these folks are doin,~', I'h,' In-I,'illthat Huey had in knO\\'j 11~ h" ,\ I" deol Iwith urganizing Black rc"I'1c ,1,1 I knOW)II"how to bring Black peol>lc: 1""<.:Ih<.:l'

Now at the same 11111<.:. therc's OUI'older hrorhers,and sisrel'~ \I'Ill) are guingto say, "'I1ley must really be thu}!'> andhoodlums, 131.Tthey're [;lIking about pulicebrutality and many of you have related Inone way or another to a relative or 111<':111ber of your family, etc. to tbe COllllil'"lband police brutality. You \\'oilld ,) I 111your homes and sa\'. "\'e.lh \I'e ,h"llldhave did it 400 years .1:';0. We should h.1 \ <.:got ollt here and start defendi 11', "III'·selves in thio; fashion,

Now at the same time. 11I.ln) pe"l'iL: "<.:1

the notiun that we I\ere SIIPI'""ed I" "" "IIIin the streets with SUU IHdCk people IllJedup with gUlls and shoot It (lilt with 1.1I01lpolice. i':u, thiS wasn't the Cdse at ,111. thiswasn't the c,lse at ,111. To the contrarv,every I3lolck Illdn in his hurne hds the ri~llI

CONTINUED ON P, 11

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-'<:c:~en

show you how smart Grother Huey is.He says, •'Now the papers are going tocall us thugs and hoodlums..\ lot ofpeople ain't going to know what's happen­ing. He said, but the brothers on the block,who the Man's been calling thugs ;lndhoodlums for 400 years, they're goin~ tosay that's some mighty fine thugs andhoodlums up there. The brother on theblock is going to say, "Who is these thugs

Emancipation Proclamation. We had m,lnyrepresentatives who bad one problem, theydidn't have a political puwer base ..\fterthe Emancipation Proclamation ... Stand­ard Oil and some other large monupoliesgot the land. When you have a land base.people can always make a political conse­quence by not cooperating:. for instance.some time ago I remember the cattlemendecided to pull out their milk because theyweren't getting a fair price for the mi Ik. Iremember the Delano grape Situationwhere the grapes rotted in the fields.BlIt black people have been excluded fromthis arena because we were not given theland with the promises after the Emancipa­tion Proclamation. We've been exploitedand treated like any other colonializedpeople."

"We don't have anything to makeapoli­tical consequence for people who will notcooperate with us ... The l3Iack PantherParty realized thiS problem Jnd thenasked the question. how can we establisha political base? ,\. power I,dse to huild dconsequence. We saw that we could't COlll­

pete with these monorolies that exploitus to get where they are -because theyhave such a heads tart. .\nd free enterpriseh;ls already been exhausted by these peoplewho got the land and real estate. So. wedon't l~ave the money, we don't have theland but we can be a political consequenceby being potentially a destructive power.So we said, how could be do thiS? Weagreed that political power flows from thebarrel of a gun, .. We developed a poli­tical party th,n will be' politically effec­'tive if black people are willin!! to arIllthemselves. So that if we don't get whatwe want, we can deal a political conse­quence -like in Detroit."

SacramentoOne of the things the Panthers did that

created a storm was to go to the Californi .I

State Legislature with guns. Iluey gave thereasoning behind this strategy. c'TIle I'an­thers were going to deliver a message to

the' black community - to tell them abouttbe injust situation that is being perpetlla-

- ted by the Legislature in Sacramento. Themessage contained an indictment thdt theracist military is murdering people, blackpeople, not only in .\meric;l. but alsoabroad - for essentially the Sdme rea­sons. Because of imperialistic re,lsonsdnd hecause uf race reasons. We were

Reconstruction

Iluey spent most of the interview talk­ing. ahout the hackiCround of tile Black Pan­ther Partv dnd hO\I' thc 1'.1 nt)lcrs an;llyzedthe politic,lI sit.u.ltioll of hlack people in.\ mer ica.

"[n the first pl,lce. any hlack .\mericanwho is n'n:-,ciollS of the situdtion'that blackculun ializeci pcople are in would be subjectto the opprcssive ;:ilil'ltion. I'd' like tuparar-hrasc J dmes L3aldwin when he saidthat to the :'lack dnd conscious in.\mericais to be in .1 const.Jnt stolge of rage."

The Panthers olre trying to translate thatl' a;.>:e into eHeet i\'e puli tical action, flueyga\'e us a short run clown on the organiza­tion of the Panthers.,' 'The Panthers ,Ire,1 part) -.1 political ol'~dnizatiun.We havea nalyzed the IJlack political situation andwc know that black peuple have heen veryineffective in the political arena in the past.\\'e have had black representatives whohdve 11l>t represented the power of blacks..\ncl in politics an act is really not poli­tical if there's no political consequence,"

• '( )ur working definition woulc be thatpoliticS is war without bloodshed anclwar is politics with bloodshed .. , thepeaceful ch,lrdcteristics of politics hJvebeen exhausted by black people."

• '\\·c an,llyze,l the Rec()nstruction wherelJ!dCK people wel'e historically depril'edofpoliticdl dvenues in the South after the

[Iuey l\ewton. \linister Of Defense ofthe mack I'anther Party, is in the Ala­meda County Jail awaiting trial for '11­legedly murdering a white cop and wound­ing: another.

In a recent interview he told why he isfilin[, suit against Kaiser 1I0spitai -thehospital that treated him fur the seriousstomach wound he received the nidlt thecops were shot. Iluey explained, ".\fter Iwas on the guel-ny to prepare me for anoperation, police stormed in ~nd im­mediately handcuffed me to the table andput me in such a position that I was .Jrch­ed. It was extreme!\' p'lI nful. The) beatmy I\Tists with their hands and club~,

where 1 h,lve 'I pinched nene. The hand­cuffs were extremel\' li~ht and extremelypa infu I. I was hit in the head and alsostuck in the stolllach. I W,I"; called m.myndmes such as 'ni;.>:ger' and an arra), ofother curse wonls. Shortly after I wasstuck in the stomach with the club. I lostmy consciousness,"

Panther History

Now, the papers call the organizationhoodlums and thugs. Now, I'm going to

Hoodlums and Thugs

were in law and how in f;lCt we COl lIdexercise a position in the Black communityto begin to Show Glack people how wewould defend ourselves. The whole pointof number seven.

So we sat down. Iluey said we wantfreedom. We want power to determinethe destiny of our black community. i':UIll­bel' three, we wa'lt housin>.;, decent hous­ing fit to shelter human heings. :"(umberfour, we want all Glack men to be exemptfrom military service, Numher five, wewant equal education for our nIack peoplein our community, that teaches us the truenature of this decadent. racist societyand to teach Glack people and our youngmack brothers dnd sisters their place insociety, because if the) don't know tiwirplace in society and in the world. theycan't relate to anythin~ ebe. Numbersix. we want an end to the rob her) ofthe White, racist businessmen of llIdckpcople in their comrllunit\ .I'\urnber seven,we \vant dn 1\1'\1 EDI.\ TE end to policebruwUtv ,Ind Illllrder of lHack people ..Number eil'ht. we W;lllt ,111 131ack menheld in the county, state, and feder,tIjdils and prisons to be rcledsed because~hey have not hold d fair trial - becausethey've been tried by all white juries.We want Illack people, Number 9, tl> hetried by members of their pecrs. I'ecrsbeing ones .who come from the s"lmceconumic. social, religious, histol-il'dland racial backiCrOunll. That in 'fact. ifthe l nited Stdl.CS ;.>:O\'Cl-Il111CIlt and the localcouns did thiS. they would have to chooscGldck people from the Glack conllllunityto sit up un the jury. TIley would have tochoose some of our ,mothers who haveheen workin\! twent) years ill \liss .\nne'skitchen scruhhil11! floors like my mommddid. They'd lwve to choose some of OUI'Ihl!"ll-workin~ Llthers. They hdve tochoose some (If the hruthers who swndon the block out there wonder in~: whentbe) 're going to get killed. 11ley're goin\!to have to choose these 131ack people..\nd numher Ill. lIuev sdid, "Let's justslllllrnarizc:' we want' housing. we \~antclothing, we want educ:ltion. we wantjustice 'lnd we want pcace."

Of all the things thdt you've hednlin the press: of .tll the derugatory state­ments that's been made in the pressdbout [kother Iluey P. l'\ewton and I, ofall this the whole purpose is to gUideyou away from seeing thiS basic plat­furm thilt lluey was tdlking abuut for hisown peuple. You have to learn to lookthrough the white press, You hdve tole,lrn to see what's goi ng on. l'\ow, outof this pl:ltforrn, J luey 1'. Nel\ton realizedthdt it WdS necessary for us to start work­ing on these points - these 10 points ­practically. I\ernember number 7? Wewant iml1ledidte end to police brutalityand murder of Black people. Very, veryimportant. Iluey did a ye,lr and a half ofl'IW school aft~r he got out of Mcrrj tl

College - .\Ssocidte ,\rts degree in SocialScience. Iluey articulated to the brotherson the block ,lIld he articulcltcdin a mdnnerwhere they understood it, \\ bat their rights

read real good when he was :lbout 16 or17 when he \Vas coming out of high school.One of his counselors at school told himhe couldn't be collese m:lteri:l1. AndHuey got mad. lie didn't like no whiteman telling him what he couldn't do..\nd (-Iuey learned how to read and Hueywent to Oakland City Cullege and 1 W:lSright there with him and Huey got a 4.0,that's an .\ in Sociolug), psychology,political science, law and run it on down.lie got .\'s all the way through and hesaid "later for the man, I know what 1can do."

Huey learned the need of Black peopleto develop a perspective :lnd an under­standing about certain conditions. Nowwhen we first org.:lOized the Black PantherParty for self-defense, I luey said. c. Gabby.we're going to draw up a basic platform­just basic, so that mack people can readit. lie said, • 'we don't want to ~o re;llelahorate with :.:II these essays and dis­sertations and all this stuff that thebrother's going to look dt and say, "Moln.I ain't got time. I got to ~o and see wh,ltI can do for myself" ..\ basic platformthat the mothers who stnlC!:,;Ie hard 1'0

raise us, tllolt the fathers who work harel,that the young: hrothers in school whocome out of school semi-illiterate -redd­ing broken words. He said we want .I

bdsic platform to outline i3lack peuple'sh"ISic political desires and needs.

Basic Platform

PAGE 4 THE MOVEMENT APRIL 1968

STOP THE DRAFT WEEK II

~~ ~4W 41r~ ~~

MORE ON THE OAKLAND SEVEN

REACHINGMORE FORCES

Professionals

ILWU ResolutionTIle ILWU Joint Legislative Council

adopted a resolution in support of ourright to demonstrate and telling the copsHands off! The high school based UnitedStudent Movement will help mobilize kidsin the context of getting set for the Inter­national Student Strike. A variety of neigh­borhood groups in or on the fringe ofthe ghettos have agreed to allow us topost informational and mobiliZing dis­plays in their headquarters.

There is already a group of longshore­men ready to participate, but we·have stillto fight for official ILWU guarantee ofjob protection in case the guys get busted.A nucleus of Mexican American farmworkers in the Napa Valley are interestedin coming down, but we've got to getpeople up there to organize for it to cometo anything.

Several union locals are being ap­proached to pass support resolutions likethe ILWU's, and to call for a one hourwork stoppage April 25 to discuss thedraft and the war. The problem is gettingenough STOW people to work with thesympathetic union men ami women tostrengthen their position and bring it off.

The ~avelling Field Secretariesof the National Community Union arein desperate need of at least threesmall van type trucks that are in~ood operating conditions. Althoughthe need is great for trucks we canuse cars if need bp.

N.C.U. travellers will soon be­gin nationwide speaking engagementswhich will necessitate travelling withlarge am 0 u n t s of literature plussleeping on the road. Good trucksor at least cars will be most valuablein helping to reach potential radicalcommunity and I abo r organizersacross the country.

If such vehicles are available pleasenotify the N.C.U. at 630 N. Racine'Ave., Chicago, 111. 60622, or call(312) 666-7257.

NCU NEEDS TRUCKS

There are also two groups of pro­fessional people working on legal defensefor The Movement and police brutality.Preliminary discussion with some of the

:.CONTINUED ON NEXT pAGE~i

SAN FRANCISCO -- There is a strange,determined spirit hanging over prepara­

. tions for Stop the Draft Week in ApriLIt is almost grim, depressing. And fromwhere I sit it just doesn't make sense.

Over the last couple of months I'vebeen talking to all kinds of communitypeople -- from AFL-CIO unions to streetgangs -- about what we want to see happenat the induction center and how they canr elate to it.

Their response falls into three cate­gories: a) a desire for direct participa­tion in the Oakland action, b) moralor political support for our cause andour right to do it, and c) a brief wordof encouragement delivered with weakhalf-smile.

But no one has come down hard again',STOW. It is true that those of us whohave been doing this kind of work havenot sought to solicit support from a truecross-section of the comm\Jnity. We havebeen selective, attempting to get ourselvestogether with the kind of community peoplewho should and. could be with us in someway.

version of the testimony..The testimony is two volumes and 361

pages long and contains statements from29 witnesses. The witnesses include twoundercover agents, a number of cops,bank employees, federal employees work­ing in the Induction Center, hotel man­agers from hotels around the InductionCenter, the University of California'sAdministrative Dean of Students and thehead of its security force, the clergymanin charge of the University's WesleyFoundation, and a number of movementprinters and UC faculty members who wereextremely unfriendly witnesses.

In spite of the bulk of the Grand Juryhearings, none of the testimony involvedsupplying of information that was notpublic. The statements provided "proof"for such acts as the opening of a bank ac­count, the registration pf a student or-;ganization, the distribution of leafletsand speaking at rallies and meetings, therenting of a hotel room, and the nefariousact of being seen in the vicinity of theInduction Center before and during StopThe Draft Week. All of these things beingacts protected by rights of free speechand association.

On the defense front things have beenmoving fairly r:apidly. An active com­mittee has been set up in the Bay Areato raise money and build public supportfor the Oakland 7•

A great deal of money is needed to fightthe case as well as people willing to workto bring the case and the general fightagainst political repression to the public.Besides direct contributions there is aneed for people to set up local defensecommittees, arrange for speaking toursof the Oakland 7, get articles in localnewspapers, magazines on radio and TV,etc. Contributions, requests for informa­tion and offers of aid should be sent to:

Stop The Draft Week Defense Fund233 T_ake Dr.Berkeley. California •

tion it requires, is excellent practice.Of course, we don't want to gloss over

the risks. Such demonstrations are seri­ous affairs. We should only go back toOakland after we've established a solidorganization, discipline and confidence.We have learned a lot from the last StopThe Draft Week and we are working nowto overcome" the weaknesses we discov­ered last time.

We must also recognize the impor­tance of effective timing for our actions.The new Selective Service Directive meansthat thousands of grads will be getting• 'Hershey Bars" for graduation ....The draftissue has more impact now than ever be­fore. Thousands of new people will beforced to consider the draft and face itsoon. April may be their last chanceto militantly -register their refusal toserve as America's cops._

No IllusionsWe have no illusions. We are sorely

unprepared for this task. We are noturban guerillas and Stop The Draft Weekis not a guerilla-type ,action. To think ofourselves as guerillas at this point wouldbe to give in to reckless romanticism.But Stop The Draft Week, and especiallythe long-term organization and prepara-

Grand Jury Testimony

.Controversy immediately surroundedthe public issuance of the testimony asa result of an article containing exerptsfrom it that appeared in the Oakland Tri­bune the day before the Oakland 7 wentto court. The testimony was obviouslyreleased to the Tribune, by the OaklandDA J. Frank Coakley before being of­ficially released by the court. BarneyDreyfus, one of the lawyers in the case,attacked Coakley for trying to prejudicecommunity feeling in the case and in­terfering with rights of a free and impar­tial trial. vVhich would be cilus~ byprospective jurors reading an exerpted

this course of events. As we come closerto the summer, we must begin to plan ouractions in relationship to the ghetto re­bellions - to divert imperialist aggres­sion. As white radicals, we must seek toopen third fronts in the urban centers ofAmerica this summer. To divide the avail­able police forces and make it as cUffi­cult as possible for the government tocarry through its program of genocide.

Since the issuing of the conspiracy in­dictments against seven leaders of lastOctober's .Stop The Draft Week in Oak­land six of the seven have been formallyarraigned, transcripts of the testimonytaken before the Alameda County GrandJury has been made public, and therehas been a rapid growth of participationin the Stop The Draft Week DefenseFund.

On February 16 six of the seven de­fendants appeared before Judge Staatsand were formally arraigned by the Oak­land Municipal Court. The six includedJeff Segal who had just returned fromChicago. The other defendant, besidesSegal, who had been out of town whenthe indictments came down, Terry Can­non has just returned from New York,The arraignment process was all of about

.15 minutes long and had been preceededby a small picket outside the court housebefore the court session began.

The importance of the hearing restedin the fact that it provided the defendantsand their lawyers their first opportunityto see the transcript of the testimony thatwas taken before the Alameda CountyGrand Jury in January that lead to the in­dictments.

i\Elaborate preparations were made by the Man to ensure a flow of cannon fodder duringOctober Stop the Draft Week

WHYGO BACK

Third FrontsBut perhaps the most important poli­

tical reason for us to go back to Oaklandis because there must be as many frontsas possible set up against America's ag­gressive policies. Viet Nam is the firstfront. The black ghettoes are the secondfront. Johnson and his spokesmen haveindicated that mas s i ve repression ofghetto rebellions is the only road thatthey intend to take in "curing" the prob­lems of the ghettoes. Although they admitthe demands are valid and must be met,they seek to stretch the task out overanother generation, and kill off the trouble­makers now. We can only understand thisattitude as do m est i c imperialism.America wants to subdue the ghettoesand govern t!lem as colonies, just asin Viet Nam.

We must also realize that the draftfeeds the armies that may well be oc­cupying Watts and Harlem this year, aswell as the armies that are "pacifying"Viet Nam. We cannot, and must not, allowourselves to be sucked into accepting

"Law & Order"This gradual destruction of the concept

of "law and order" as it exists in thiscountry is the second major reason whywe are preparing to return to Oakland.Law and order are illegitimate in thissociety. II Law and order" is only.a slo­gan, used by the establishment, to veil,repression and stagnation. As radicalswe seek to make basic changes in thissociety. Law and order is a concept de- .signed to block such changes.

We must be willing to disregard theirlaws, a~ we seek to challenge theirorder.

This is not· to say that we are in aposition to be "lawless" all the time. Wemust choose our own ground. Some sit­uations are more strategic than others.

The tactic of a militant street demon­stration, such as Oakland Stop the DraftWeek, is an excellent way of exposingthe hypocrL,y and oppressiveness of thestatus quo's law and order.

By Morgan Spector

•'we must go back""we must go back"

We have heard that cry many timessince the October Stop The Draft Week.Some think that cry is a cry of frustra­tion. "We gotta do something." We willtake to the streets again, but not out offcustration. Rather, because there aresound political reasons for doing so.Mili­tant street demonstrations basically servethree political purposes; they do, in factdisrupt the functioning of the draft pro­cess; they serve as a challenge to thegovernment's notion of "law and order";and they create yet another battlefrontwhich America's cops must "pacify."

We have no pretensions about beingable to close down any induction centerpermanently. Nor can we end the draftby demonstrations. The draft- is a toolof America's imperialist aggression ­at home and abroad - and the draftprobably won't end until imperialism isdestroyed.

But we can make it as difficult and ascostly as possible for them to operate._And it is costly. On October 20, they,required 2000 cops to process 200 induc­tees. Commercial activity in Oaklandwas seriously impaired for several hours.America also had to face the costs ofpatching up its international image. Thisis not a dollars and cents issue. LastOctober's wave of militant demonstra­tions proved to people at home and abroadthat America's radicals are becomingincreasingly unwilling to obey America'slaws.

APRIL 1968 THE MOVEMENT PAGE 5

RESIST THE DRAFT FROM WITHIN, AND WITHOUTINSIDE THE SERVICE:

MOVEMENT CARS GETTENDER LOVING CAREAT

VOLKSWAGEN

Earl's1830 SAN PABLO AVE.

BERKELEY

think the only reason we're going backto the center is simply to fulfill somekind of death wish or to support the Oak­land Seve'n. That's a whole lot of crap.The decision to go back wasn't made bythe leadership, .it was made by the kidswho were beaten and busted, and by thethousands who couldn't or wouldn't par­ticipate in October.

This commitme'nt to return to Oaklandis based on a gut rage against the warand the draft, and to show the Admin­istration they can't come across withindictments and storm troopers withoutsuffering great political cost and a dis­location of American society.

To accomplish this, we have to getoutside of ourselves and realize we're notthe, only people or section of the popu­lation who share this rage or endorsethis resistance. And even if we were,we couldn't do it alone. To get the com­munity together we have to get our­selves together. And that's what has tohappen between now and that week inApril••

'Nashville - Gary Williams, activein the Southern Students' Organizing Com­mittee refus.:d inductiono

Oroville, Calif. -Fred Lon-idier and Bruce Murray, both full-timePeace Corps volunteers, have refusedinduction. A third peace corps man, Mal­colm Dundas, is now serving an 18-monthsentence for refusal.

The Movement congratulates and sup­ports all these men and their brothers allover the country who are refusing toserve,

New Jersey - Emmett Schaefer re­fused induction.

New York - Vinny McGee, a studentat Union Theological Seminary, Chris­topher'Robinson, a member of the NewYork Resistance, and Mark Weintraub, astudent at Queens CoUege, have all re­fused induction.

resignation:"Today I am resigning from the Selec­

tive Service System by leaving my alter­native service job ••• From now on I willnot co-operate with the Selective ServiceSystem in any wayo

"My job, as a pacifist and as a personopposed to this war in Vietnam, is to re­sist our warring government, includingthe Selective Service System, rather thanto seek special privileges from it ••• Iknow that my obedience to my consciencemay also result in my imprisonment. ButI do not believe that the dangers of im­prisonment are equal to the dangers ofacting without integrity and in complicitywith a government dependent on whole­sale violence."

~~ ,.,.., ,.,.., .~,.,

ANEW NEWSPAPER

A CHANGEFor sh;>rp-eyed readers who notice

that the masthead reads April and wonderwhat happened to March, the change is toaid news-stand circulation where any­thing dated the current month is consid­ered out of date. Subscriptions are fortwelve issues so ,there will be no changein the number of issues subscribers re­ceive.

how best to reach those we don't know -­but first we have to get ourselves to­gether.

This community work we are doing,and the support we have already received,IS not something that has been conjuredup in the last two months. In many ways,it is the result of the impact the OctoberSTOW had on the community.

Many people agreed with our positionagainst the war and the draft from thebeginning -- but found no way to par­ticipate. And other people were for thefirst time made aware that the Vietnamwar has come home -- and that all levelsof authority and police enforcement aretied to the political aims of the Admin­istration -- not to "law and order."

Expanding Our BaseThe obstacle to expanding this com­

munity work and broadening our base ofsupport -- and thereby increasing thechance. of building an on-going organ­ization or movement -- is our own self­image and sense of purpose.

Many people around STOW seem to

Chicago - Fred Aviles, a PuertoRican organizer for LADO anddraftcoun­selor for Spanish-speaking people in Chi­cago, refused induction after being deniedC.O. statuso Befere Federal Judge HubertWill sentenced him to 3 years in prison,Aviles read this statement: "The VietnamWar is not a war of the people ••• andthose super-patriots who do support thegovernment in this war are underminingthe basic principle on which this countrywas founded - a government by thepeople, for the people and of the people• 0 • I acted in the right way. lf 1 mustpay a price, I am ready to pay that price.Al:hough I am afraid, I am not sorry be­cause I believ:e I am right."

Also in Chicago, Jeremy Mott wassentenced to five years in jail for refusingto do civilian alternative service as arecognized conscientious 0 b j e c tor. Heworked for 9 months under governmentorders and then wrote this letter of

color for capitalistic ends. Therefore irisinconceivable that I go out like a fool andfight my non-white brothers in China,Vietnam, Africa, Latin America andSout,hAmerica for white devils. Your enemiesare my friends • . • I support everythingyou oppose and oppo~e everything you,support.

At this juncture 1 would like to make aplea for our brothers in Vietnam to comeon home ••• Our mothers, fathers; sistersand brothers are being shot down likedogs and we earnestly need their protec- 'tion and their skills, The white man hasbuilt tanks that will roll in our communi­ties • • • The mission of those tanks is toDESTROY BLACK HUMANITY .•• Thosetanks must be stopped and they will bestopped • • • by any means necessary.

-Jan Bailey

i , ..

REACHING' OUICON'T fROM PAGE 4

individuals involved indicates we can get'them to pick up the defense work forSTOW and take over the watch dog oper­ation at the center.

Now that's just the beginning. There aremany organizations to be contacted, anddoor-to-door work has to start. Ourpurpose is: a) to educate the communityas to what we are doing and why, b) toneutralize much of the hostility towardsSTOW type demonstrations, and c) todevelop a vehicle for community par­ticipation in the action.

Community participation in STOW aC-1tivities will apparently take place on twolevels: in the newly formed STOW non­'student organizing committee (set up at theFeb. 26 meeting of the Bay Area steeringcommittee by several workers and a fewCommunity organizers): and through di­rect support for STOW by Communityorganizers.

~~ ~~ ,.,..,

armed forces. I have no anticipations norexpectations of saluting flags or officerswearing uniforms, singing a national an­them or obeying orders from a supposedlysuperior beast. Frankly speaking, I see noplace in Uncle Sam's army for this angryblack man. Let me be plain" I will notsupport in any way such a brutal, oppres­sive, arrogant, hypocritical, beastly whiteimperialist and racist countryo I am not forimperialism but against it; my allegiancewith this country is to build it throughchange and self-determination for and byblack people, We are related by blood,culture and common experiences of hard­ship suffered by this racist system, Onthe international s c e n e there are twogroups of people: the haves and the have­nots; the whites and the non-whites, Thewhites are the haves and the non-whitesare the have-nots. The same is true forthis country 0 Blacks have been disillusion­ed, frustrated, humiliated, alienated andbrutalized by white people and this is theissue I speak to, FollOWing the dictates ofmy black consciousness, I 'have no otheralternative but to refuse to be inducted.I think it foolish to embrace a system thatdestroys laws, customs, and people of,

Yours truly,George S. Edwards

Easy To DoThe support we've already received was

obtained by making individual contacts inunions and community groups. It didn't takemuch effort. People want to ta!k about it.Just find out from past experience whoare some of the people who have goneon record against the war or the draft andtalk to them first. These people helpedus find out who should be approached intheir group for official action -- eitherin terms of getting on their group'sagenda or themselves introducing somekind of resolution or action proposal.

This type of community work is the

easiest, but it is also just about the most There's a new newspaper for soldiersimportant because of the necessity of called VIETNAM GL Published in Chi-building some kind of unity or mutual cago with an advisory board of Vietnamrespect among those who oppose the war veterans, it's mailed first class for

Washington, D.C.- Jan, Bailey, 25 and the draft. some semblance of privacy. Contents in-year old SNCC organizer in Washington, The hardest part is mobilizing com- clude a lot of interviews with vets backbecame the 17th SNCC worker to refuse ml'nity people as individuals to participate from Vietnam, It's free to soldiers. Sus-induction into the U.So Army. He read in the acton. Here again, we've started taining subs are $10 a year. VIETNAMthis statement in front of the induction with people we know on the docks or con- GI needs people to spread the word andcenter in Baltimore Maryl<md: struction sites or in neighborhoodcm~__ mOl e Cl's. VI'! He 'v'IPlNAM I I

I am historically, politically, psycholo- and asked them to get their friends to- GI, PO Box 9273, Chicago, Ill. 60690.gically, and morally unfit to serve in the gether.. Then we'll be able to figure out

FROM THE OUTSIDE:

Oakland, Calif. -A court rul-ing prevented the Army from shipping outtwo soldiers who wish to file for C.O.status within the Army, Jbis is the firsttime that the Oakland Army Base has beenordered to restrain its orders while asoldier's personal-status application isbeing processedo In fact, the Army hasnever before allowed soldiers to file theC.O. form in Oakland, which is the point ofembarkation for Viet Nam.

The soldiers are Steve Mason and JohnCampbell. Both had been AWOL for 30days. (A soldier has to be AWOL for 60days for charges to be pressed). Theyfound out that- over 2,000 soldiers areAWO L in the Bay Area alone and predictthat many of them will now file for achange of statuso

Elsewhere Specialist Frederick Chard,a top security clearance serviceman onleave from Okinawa, refused to returnthere after seeing Felix Greens movie'Inside Vietnam' and having read articlesabout the Gulf of J:onkin resolution • . 0

After refusing the official order on J an­uary 19, he announced his refusal on T. V.

Eric Mann was inspired by Chard's T. V,performanceo Mann, a draftee, was or­dered to report to Fort Lewis, Washing­ton, for transfer to KoreaoHe refused thetransfer order and made his announcementpublic on several West Coast radio sta­tions.

Dear Sir:1 am presently in the United States Air Force and on Feb. 5, 1968 1 refused to accept

an assignment to Tachikawa, Japan on the grounds that 1 believe that my fight is here inthe black ghettoes of Detroit, Newark, Chicago, New York and any place where my blackbrothers and sisters are suffering from white exploitation.! feel it is ridiculous for meto pretend I am a free man in Vietnam or Korea and a second class citizen here in,America. It is impossible for me to give freedom to someone three thousand miles awaywhen I don't have freedom to live three miles outside of the nation's capitaL I do notfeel any obligation or trust in white Americao America has promised my people free­dom too long without keeping her wordo My brothers and sisters have died for this countrysince its beginning, all of which has beenin vain. I am tired of seeing my brotherskicked, lynched and mobbed by whiteAmerica while their murderers go free &in many cases, receive praiseoBecause ofmy love for my people and my convictionsI refuse to support the United States Gov­ernment in any way until my brothers arefree o By my very presence in the UnitedStates Armed Forces 1 have compromisedtoo much. My people and I have given theirvery soul for this country - no more 1

On Feb. 5 at 2:00 porno I refused toboard an aircraft going to Tachikawa,Japan as I previously stated, On Feb, 6I reported to Major Long and told him ofmy refusal to accept this or any assign­ment until black people are free 'here inAmericao Major Long ordered me to getmy mobility paperwork, I obeyed thisorder, Upon returning I was instructed tose.: Lt. CoL Buckwalter. I also explainedto him my reasons for not accepting thisor any assignmenL Lto CoL Buckwalters aid he was willing to forget this incidentif I boarded another aircraft leaving forTachikawa, Japan later that day. I re­peated my refusal whereby I was placedunder arrest and restricted to my quartersuntil further notic~,

I am writing this letter because I knowI will not get a fair court martial with amilitary attorney, I do not have sufficientfunds to hire an attorney therefore I amasking for your help legally or any adviceor recommendations you can give me, Ifyou cannot help me, help those of my peopleyou are able to help.

Virginia - The letter that follows is by George Edwards, a black man in the UnitedStates Air Force stationed in VirginiaoHis letter represents the growing attitude amongblack G.L's that their battleground is here in the UoS,

THE MOVEMENT

CUBA AND THEAPRIlL 1968

AM RICAN MOVEMENTBy Todd Gitlin

We look to Cuba not only because of whatwe sense Cuba to be but because of whatthe United States is not. Generations onthe American left have' externalized good:Vi~, needed_ t.? tie our fates to someone,somewhere in the world, who was seizingthe chances for a humane society: or weneeded an easy diversion from the hardbusiness of cracking America. (*Checkout James Weinstein's THE DECLINE OFSOCIALISM IN AMERICA, 1912-1925(Monthly Review Press, 1967) for early­1917 - episodes in the grim story.) Nowwe dig Cuba: Che's words and face arefor sale everywhel'e, Regis Debray as aspokesman for Fidel is devoured as amissionary to the American left, and wepreserve our qUick optimisms with fan- _tasies of an assault on OUR barracks, alanding in OUR yacht, a fight in OURmountains.

Then the pendulum swings. It becomescliche on the other side to insist that tograpple with' our own distinct reality wemust refuse to learn lessons from theisland revolution. Cuba will blind us sothoroughly, we should stay at home. In­ternationalism means total identificationwith somebody else's revolution, and anabandonment of our own calling, nothingless,. Most of us in some measure havebecome stalled, unwillingly and uneasily,within these two ways of denying the Cubanreality. The truth may well lie ., some­where in between" - but where? Thelessons must be named and explored andmade precise, or they are worthless.

In NEW LEFT NOTES (February 12),I began to sketch my understanding ofthe quality of the Cuban present, center-

- iilg on the ways in which the rhetoric ofstruggle, development, internationalism,and the new man is rooted in the ordinarylives of Cubans, and on the power ofliberal and left ideologies to obscure thoseconcrete lives. And Cuba is of course ales§on that the communal spirit is notalways dependent on an active war footing,that "Communism" and "revolution" areterms that conceal complex and variousrealities. Here I want to look at Cubafrom a different - neither higher norlower - angle. The questions are, Whatdo Cubans understand about America,and what do we learn from their percep­tions? and, What in the Cuban experiencemight be valid for our own work?

"Vietnam, We Are With You""Every man is offended when another's

face is slapped. Uose Marti)

Sketches of Cub a n internationalism,common, exemplary, more than symbolic:

- One of the most powerful of the Cubandocumentary films (and all in all they aretechnically the best I have seen), "Hanoi,Manes 13," begins and ends with a color'cartoon of the history of Viet Nam. Thenarrative is a "Message of Solidaritywith the People of Viet Nam in Their Strug­gle Against French Colonialism" -writ­ten by Marti, 19th-century Cuban poetand revolutionary hero, in the 1880's.(This is the man Cubans quote from andlook to more than anyone but Fidel andthat interloping Argentine doctor who oncewent to fight with a crazy little band in theSierra Maestra and later died, murdered,in the hills of Bolivia.) ,

Coming from America, whose esteemfor foreigners and their cultures is wellknown, I was staggered by the depth andcommonness of Cuban internationalism. Itpredates the revolution: it runs so deep,though, it could not have begun only nineyears ago, even nine years as the revo­lution measures time. (But in fact in1956 Fidel made an exceptio!} for Che: hefeared some Cubans might not take totoo many foreigners.)

- At a special agricultural plan in theinland Las Villas province, I met a17-year-old tractor driver from a near­by town..

"How long do you work?"•'Sometimes 24 hours a day." He smiled,

proud without arrogance. "Today I haveworked 24 hours." He showed me theheadlights on his tractor. (Later 1 did see

tractors plowing the fields at night.)"You don't sleep?""No, don't sleep." And then, matter­

of-factly, without a trace of sloganeering:"The people in Viet Nam don't sleep,why should we? We're doing the samework."

If I have ever heard anyone mean any­thing, he meant that.

- A crack agricultural brigade, sold­iers who had volunteered for giganticland-clearing and planting ventures whose

,progress is followed in the papers likethe progress of the NLF, were offered.vacations in Cuban resorts, free trips toCzechoslovakia, etc. They asked insteadto be sent to Viet Nam: the NLF grate­fully declined their services.

- One scene in a play, VIETNAM,SIMPLY, acted by Cubans and' Vietna­mese, ,pitted two choruses from OPPositesides of the stage. The American hawks,women with Amazon manners, chanted slo­gans about democracy, saving the worldfrom Communism, etc. The "socialistcamp" chanted "Peacel Peacel Nego­tiate!" Hawks: "What? Can't hear you."Socialists: •'Negotiate 1 (Very mechanical-

ly:) Vietnam, we are with you! (Beatingtheir breasts:) You have all our moralsupport. We even send you a little aid• • ," As the dialogue spun itself outinto ritual emptiness, the Cuban obser­ver interrupted, every minute of so:"Meanwhile, another thousand Vietna­mese killed, another school napalmed•. ," -no political rhetoric, nothing butraw urgency. (Even if this is not policy,consider the' fact that this is how someCubans at least want their commitmentsto be known.)

A student said a Czech "had told her,"You know, we are with Viet Nam andall of that, but really we can't feel thewar very intimately. After all Viet Namis so far away," The Cuban was amazed:"We are so much further than you, inmiles, but we feel it is our war."

- Hardly any 0 n e who learned orguessed I was an American failed to takethe trouble to assure me that the Ameri­can people is a good people, that thereis no such thing as a bad people, that itwas the American system and govern­ment they opposed. A professor told meFidel had had a time - and no wonder-'- getting this notion" across in a rushof speeches after the Bay of Pigs. AndThere were exceptions: some peasantsand a waitress looked at me askanceuntil I told them I was in oppositiontoo. ("ANYONE WHO FIGHTS IMPER­IALISM is our brother," said one ofthe peasants.)

- The "Committees fgr the Defenseof the Revolution," block clubs the Ameri­can press calls networks of informers,have as one of their functions the gather­ing of blood for liberation struggles aroundthe world. (They also administer public

health programs, get out the vote for thepopular election of neighborhood officials,arrange for transportation of voluntaryworkers to the countryside, etc.)

- A,worker in a bus pointed at the head­headline, ., Yanki Officials Killed in Guate­mala," and said in great excitement,"We did well todayl"

.,- An airplane mechanic said he wouldgive me his copy of the paper as soon ashe finished reading, word by slow word,the text of Regis Debray's speech of self- 'defense: "it's important."

- Our guide was a medical studentfrom a wealthy home, who had been thrownout of the Young Communists for "lackof discipline" (she had wanted to go toart school simultaneously), but is probablysoon to be reinstated because those whothrew her out were soon afterward thrownout themselves, for sectarianism. At theage of 14 she had been active in the 26th­of-July underground: her independence ofmind, in my experience typical of largenumbers of the young, might be illustratedby the fact that w~en I told her an Ameri­can photographer had written that Fidel'seyes are hypnotic, she came right back

with, "That's bullshit" - Fidel standingnot twenty feet away.

Heroic GuerrillaNew Year's Eve I asked her what name

she would like for the new year. Shesaid, "Year of the Heroic Guerilla," Agovernment official sitting with us haddifferent words fo"r the same thought, butpreferred her version. This had cl~arly

been something under discussion, followedwith interest, but had a line already beenset, the official would presumably haveknown it too.

January 2, Fidel ended his speech tothe hundreds of thousands gathered in thePlaza de la Revolucion this way (I quotefrom the official transcript: I was thereand can vouch for its accuracy: all I havecut are repetitions):

The only thing left to do today is togive a name to the year 1968. And we wantyou to tell us. (SHOUTS OF •'THE HERO­ICGUERILLA") .•. All right then, thisyear will be called the Year of theHeroic Guerilla, (A PPLAUSE), as thename most suitable for this year, for itscharacteristics and for its spirit, and asa tribute of profound veneration, remem­brance· and love for our heroic MajorErnesto Guevara (OVATION), and thosehero!.c combatants who fell with him(APPLAUSE). The imperialists have pub­lished names of Cubans killed with MajorErnesto Guevara. WELL, WE ARE NOTGOING TO PUBLISH NAMES, BUT WEDO STATE THAT, IF OTHER CUBANSFELL IN COMBAT WITH MAJOR ER­NESTO GUEVARA, THIS WOULD BE INKEEPING WITH THE HISTORY OF THISCOUNTRY, WITH ITS INTERNATION­ALIST AND REVOLUTIONARY SPIRIT.

above: "How do you like school?" ~'It's

good." "Why?" "We Jearn."

left: Four soldiers in cane field. One.ofthese soldiers brandished his mocha(a small machete): "In times of peace,we lise the weapons of production."

right: Cane cutters near Bayamo in Orien­te Province. They have been cuttingcane a minimum of 22 years. Whenasked what difference the revolutionhad made in their working condi.tions,they broke into big qUick smiles.

below: A Jamaica-born fisherman spend­ing Sunday digging earth outside Ha­vana. Volunteers shovel the earth intoplastic sacks, where coffee seedlingswill grow, planted on land not cultiva­ted before. "Cuba is making a newman," he says, "a socialist man, aman who works with his fellow man."

Photos: Todd Gitlin

And there is nothing extraordinary aboutit, and there could be nothing more honor­able for this country than for its sons toknow how to fight to death, spilling eventhe last drops of their blood for the lib­eration of the peoples, which is theliberation of humanity ..• (APPLAUSE).

It will sound romantic to some, butI am quite convinced that these lines, de­livered in fury and anguish, contain: thecore and the basis of the foreign policy ofCuba: and t~at this' policy, its elementalforce and its risk, require no "stirringup of the masses" to stand as the policy ofthe population. lf we think it has to be im­pJanted, like somebody else's heart, we aretalking about the American experience, notthe Cuban. '

NationalismOf course the Cuban revolution was a

national revolution, of course "Patria 0 •

muertel" is no idle promise, but a feltcommitment. But from our own fears andthe sour fate of past generations we havelearned to draw a line between nationalism and internationalism, a'S if one pre-

vented the other. Some white radicalsassume from the American past that"na­tionalism" must describe a single, un­alterable phenomenon, then that this phe­nomenon is always rooted in cultural arro­gance, that it cannot allow for solidaritywith people across boundaries. In re­sponse, in a natural rage at this country,some whites and blacks resort to a kindof instant internationalism, inventing in­ternational allies as if these allies hadsome tangible ways of bearing on the dailysufferings of black people locked (for bet­ter and mostly for worse) within THESE

. national frontiers. (In O~kland, February17, Stokely invoked "nine hundred millionblack' people." Was he including Cuba,where, he also said, •'h 0 n k i e scan' tgo" ?)

Nationalism for the Cubans is the verybasis of their internationalism. They are7-1/2 million people, on an island, ideo­logy aside. Their tiny size they havemade into a virtue, a refuge from na­tionalist smugness. Their culture has al­ways been synthetic, looking for inde­pendent roots but not suspicious off()reigngraftings. THEY have made THEIR revolu­tion, therefore they are entitled to helpothers to make theirs, not in the name ofCuba but in the name of what Cuba hasdone. The nation is not the end of therevolution, but its beginning.

When the Cubans recommend their in­ternationalism for the American move­ment, they take their own distinct his­tory for granted: if is part of their poli­tical air, before any strategic calculation.But despite the blatant differences betweenthe two countries, despite what they knowof gambling, whore.;.hunting,"expeditionaryAmericans, they challenge us to presshard against American chauvinism.

The Blurring of ColorWhat they .!"Jave trouble understanding

about America and about our movementfalls in that area of tension between theirexperience and ours. Race is the issue ofgreatest confusion to them. Many Cubanshave heard of Stokely and Black Power:a frequent first question from politicalresponsibles is, "What is the relationbetween the anti-war and the Black Pow­er movements?" There is the inevitableanswer. And then, •'Why so far apart 7"That blacks and whites no longer crosshands and sing "We Shall Overcome"causes them distress. They don't preachan abstract brotherhood, but listen atten­tively to the explanations, nod their heads- and never quite understand.

If there is racism in Cuba, it is notapparent. The eyes testify to a non-racialsociety. The range of skin shades proves along history of intermarriage. Americansstare in wonder at the blonde chicksarms in arm with the black guys, but noone else seems to notice. In' one factoryfn Oriente, the most intermingled pro­vince, two of three departmental super-

visors I met were black. Not only werethe mixed races at all l~vels, but no oneseemed self-conscious about it.

When I tried to explore the historyof racism in Cuba, sometimes I had thefeeling I was asking ~artians to commenton an Earthly sin. In a Havana cigarfactory, the union head (black) said thatbe­fore the revolution blacks were excludedfrom the highest-paying jobs, and werepaid less than whites for the same work.Because of the wage differential, whiteworkers tended to take the side of thebosses in union fights. Their relativeswere 'given prededence when they retired,guaranteeing white monopolies of the bestjobs. (There were also some TO m s.)Whites contesting this state of affairswere fired., The revolution made its commitmentto equality plain from the very beginning.Early, meetings were held to explain theabolition of discrimination in both workand pay. Most workers, he said, adjusted;some of the others, mostlY older ,emigra­ted to the U.S. (One worker asked us tothank the Amer-ican people for taking theseunreconstructed racists off Cuban hands.)•'Sophisticated" workers (mostly mem­bers of the old Communist Party) easedthe transition.

I asked how many blacks were nowworking in the factory. He laughed: • 'Wedon't keep statistics. They don't matterfor us," He said we would see - aswe did --- a disproportionate number ofwhites (including MESTIZOS, mulattoes)in the better-paid jobs, because no special.measures had been taken to uproot thediscriminatory heritage. (There are alsorelatively few blacks in the Central Com­m ittee of the Party - a sign ofits studentorigins.) It would be unfair, he said, to

hire a black over a white regardless ofskill and exper·ience; the solution wastime for the revolution's commitment toequal education to work itself out. Whatwould be a liberal platitude in the U.S.was for him an act of secure faith, a tri­bute to the revolution's momentum.

I knew that cigar workers were tra­ditionally the most literate and politicalof factory workers, but 1 wanted the manto go further. Did he think the racismwas internalized, taken by the white workeIi _for his own feelings, beyond his fear ofbeing fired if he challenged the color line?Or was racism more a matter of structure,based on past slavery and maintained bythe rich, to which whites conformed bynecessity? The question at first made nosense to him. Getting at it from differentangles, it .dawned on me that the concept offelt rather than structured racism wasalmost entirely foreign to his experience.He knew of cases, but of no dominant,deep and bragging mood of racism amongwhites.

A Class-Based RacismNone of this should be taken to dis­

parage the revolution's achievement. Butclearly Cuba had a head start. (Anothersign of the class origin of racism: fancyrestaurants had been segregated before,but not buses.) Its advantage could betraced to the organization of slavery underthe Spanish. (1 take this background fromHerbert S. Klein, SLAVERY IN THEAMERICAS: A COMPARATIVE STUDYOF CUBA AND VIRGINIA (University ofChicago, 1967). From the beginning of the16th century, the Spanish reserved cer­tain rights to slaves -including marriage,property, and a certain legal stanc4ng aspersons - which, however minimal theyseem, the Virginians did not tolerate.The Catholic Church intervened directly,with emissaries from Spain, to stand be­tween master and slave, extending somereligious rights to the Africans. With lesseconomic reason for converting the slaveinto utter property, and under fire fromdomestic liberals (I), the Spanish crownasserted a ti~ht central authority against

the more brutal intentions of the colon­i§ts ..-

-financing most of the expeditions it­self, it moved under the prestige of codesdating from the 13th century, which tookslavery to be a necessary evil, not aGod-given right. And white immigrantswere relative~y few, leaving blacks fair­ly well represented in skilled trades. Inthis very relative business of compar::l­tive s 1a v e r i e s, the Spaniards alloY;'~

vastly more rOOJll for: blacks in the mid­dle spaces of the society, with somerecourse against the h a r she s t treat­ment.

By 1860-61, when 35% of the coloredpopulation of Cuba were freedmen, only11% in Virginia had thrown off the sta­tus of slave. The Virginian colonists fi­nance::! their own expeditions, organizedan independent church, and took localpolitical and military power. The Englishcrown stood back and watched. Englishlaw deprived the slave of his least rights;the murder of a slave was no felony (inCuba it was). The special demands of to- .bacco cultivation intensified an overt raceprejudice which was, at the very least,

'less plain in the Spanish colonies. A Vir­ginian clergyman wrote in 1680 thatVirginians •'for the most part do knowno other GOD but MONEY, nor RE ­LIGlON but PROFIT." We bear grim wit­ness to the consequences.

In burying the past, the revolution hadto disrupt STRUCTURES more than AT­TIDUDES. And now nine years of non­racial development have accustomed Cu­bans to multi - colored egalitarianism,leaving them ill-equipped to think of raceas a pivotal category. Their political iden­tity is with the Third World -a matterof victims fighting executioners, as theysee it, and only incidentally a matter ofrace. Fanon for them makes the Hr:stbreak from orthodox Marxism toward anew philosophy and strategy for the colon­ized. He has read in Party training

.;CONTINUED ON P. 10

PAGE 8 THE MOVEMENT APRIL 1968

How the Man Breaks a Strike

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The Strikebreakers' View

with the white union leaders to discussan arrangement whereby the black work­ers would honor the strike. But, said theblack workers, any such meeting wouldhave to be on the initiative of the whites.They would make no effort to set up themeeting.

We rep"orted this conversation to Jollyand other union leaders. We pointed outthat we were not in any sense represent­ing the black workers; that they werenot our clients and we had absolutely noinfluence in the black community. Westressed to them that they would haveto gain the trust and confidence of theblack workers themselves.

J oIly and the others asked us whatwe thought they should do. We told themthey should contact the leaders of theblack strikebreakers. They asked uswhom they should talk with. We toldthem they should know who the leadersof the black strikebreakers .were, andadded that we could not act as go-be­tweens.

When they mentioned "good friends"they had in the black community, wesuggested that these "good friends"were probably not the leaders of themilitant workers. We said t'hat a newspirit was abroad in the black com­munity, and it would be up to them tofigure out how to deal with that spiritin the interest of unity.

J oIly and the other said they ~ouldconsider what we had told them and thatthey would try to work out something.However, Jolly said that it wasn't justa simple matter of the union leadershipgoing to the black strikebreakers andbargaining over concessions.

The union members honoring the strikehad already taken the necessary stepsto impose sanctions, if they chose to doso. against those who had abandoned thestrike. Jolly emphasized that the blackstrikers had also voted for these steps.

"Our local is a democracy and we haveto abide by the majority will," he said.

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The Need for Coalition

We asked what could be done to avoidsimilar splits in the future. "Only thingI can see is that we've got to form acoalition," Jolly went on. "White andcolored in the local will have to get to­gether and come up with some candi­dates from both races and everybodywill have to back them. Otherwise thisthing will continue to split us."

Coalition. A magic word these days.Quite simply it means the coming to­gether of people with similar problemsto fight a common enemy. It does notmean love or brotherhood or integration,although it could mean or lead to !!oIl ofthese things.

But coalition does require two ingredi­ents, and one of these is strength. Themostly white local did have strength andhad shown it many times in previousstrikes. The question is: Did the blackminority in the union have any strength?

I believe Jolly answered that when hesaid, "If colored members had not goneback to work the strike would be over."

to be frank, we knew all the time whatwe had to do. Then came the Civil RightsAct (1964) and a suit was filed by sixof our brothers-one white and fivecolored. ,.

"When we integrated, the whites hadthe numerical strength. They were 75per cent of the union. Candidates wereput up for office and everybody voted I

along racia1 lines. None of the coloredcandidates were elected and they never"ran again."

Jolly calls that election a mistake.He says: "I, from a practical stand­point, thinking of the union first, don'twant to freeze the colored out, becausewe need them. If some of our coloredmembers hadn't broken this strike andgone back to work this strike wouldbe over."

"The Union's Position

In fact, some union officials said thatMasonite had planted agents in the plantto discover ways to divide the workers.These agents seem to have decided thatthe long history of division betweenblack and white people made it possibleto pit them against each other.

In reality the Laurel local is two locals-one white, comprising 75 percent ofthe membership, the other 25 percentblack. Until a few years ago the blackworkers were in a sub-local. Althoughmore than 500 blacks were members ofthe local and felt that the 1500 whiteworkers accepted them as fellow ,trade­unionists, they still did not feel theywere really a part of the union.

No black people were elected to officein the local. Officials of the local nowsee this as a mistake. Some realize thata program of education might havebrought about the unity they needed inthis strike.

_..__r__ -------

• J P'~ '''we ..... p.uJ leganurr.-;::ftill ... well, OUi iilteiilatiunal .. liS It sliJ!:'ftt possibility that they and .. ithheld. Theil Rames aFe J19t ilJlP9F

ees. (" 'ion prohibited segregatIon and, other non-strikin/t blacks would meet tant; their views are.

By ROBERT ANA LAVAGE(Reprinted from the Southern Patriot)

LAUREL, Miss. -The strike formallybegan in April, 1967, when a shop stew­ard was fired by a foreman." The stewardwas backing two workers in their refusalto do work not included in their jobdescriptions.

But it began a long time before that.It began when Masonite brought in ateam of efficiency experts to determinehow to make the most profits with thefewest workers at the lowest cost. Theexperw suggested that the pli'.nt be totallyreorganized, with automation the eventualgoaL

Masonite calls its operation here thelargest hardboard plant in the world;it produces a $250,000 weekly payrollfor the Laurel area. The company and thelocal, largest in Mississippi, have hadbitter struggles over the years, but no--l}ing to rival this one. _ _ _

This time the local, considered themost militant in the state and possibly In order to assess the whole situationin the South, saw the actions of the better, Bob Zellner, Jack Minnis and Icompany as the opening of an effort met with seven or eight members of theto destroy the local completely. It did . local's leadership-all white. The strikenot hesitate to strike once it felt its had been going on for months and theinterest threatened, local found it difficult to get its side of

Th t 'k t . k t I' the story to the public. The Laurel news-e s n ers se up mass piC e mes .d f d t II . I d' paper had even refused to sell the umon

an re use 0 r. ow a~y~ne, mc u mg space to explain its position.management personnel, InSide the plant.Hulse Hayes, a lawyer from the firm of ~eanwhile, Masonite was recruitingthe late anti-union Senator Robert Taft strikebreakers from Georgia, Texas, andwent to court for Masonite, seeking a~ other parts of Mississippi.injunction against the union's activities. "They had the whole Ole Miss football

A lower-court judge upheld the strik- team scabbing in there," said J. D. Jolly,ers' right to picket peacefully, so Hayes president of the local.appealed to the Mississippi Supreme A Wackenhut guard had been slainCourt. the day we met with Jolly and other

During the court proceedings the local leaders of the union. The room wasargued that it had been pushed into the tense as we sat down with these men.strike and so was unable to give the re- We were very frank about the factqui red ten days' notice before striking. that we were in the civil-rights move-.The local subpoenaed documents and ment. Minnis explained that at one timeexposed Masonite's reorganization plan. we had all worked for SNCC. He said ~e

The documents also showed that the were now with SCEF and were inter-company had hired Wackenhut guards ested in building unity between black10 days before the strike began. and white working people in the South.

These guards come from the same M' n' t Id th th t t d" m IS 0 e men a we wan epnvate detectIVe agency used by Gover- to hel'f ld b t ddt" P I we cou , u we nee e 0nor Claude Kirk to pohce the state of unde sta d th flit f th t'kFlorida. r n e.u na ure 0 e s 1'1 e.

· . . . . The men were sIlent for a moment.StIll the MISSISSIPPI Supreme Court Th J II k "W d ''" . en 0 y spo e up: e on t care

granted the InJunctIOn. The stnke was h I h I. . . w 0 you are as ong as you can e p."

ruled Illegal, and It was made a cnme I thO k 't" t k J II. '. m I IS Impor ant to now 0 y.for the mternatlOnal umon or anyone .. . .I t t th t 'k Th k HIS lIfe has been dedicated to the locale se 0 suppor e s 1'1 e. e wor ers .. .

· d I and to the cause of trade-umomsm. HIScarne on a one. "name was III the headlmes briefly in 1964

Wackenh~t set up outp~sts all over after a white union official was beaten Th" majority of the black workersthe. Masomte property, .wlth shotgun- by the Ku Klux Klan for backing a had uS'ed their stren th but the usedtotmg guards ent.renched m sand-bagged N .. . h .. . g , y

'. egro In a gnevance agamst t e com- It agamst the umon. They gave rea.bunkers. The plant looked more lIke a pany. Jolly declared that the union would f thO h' h I'll . tfortress than a factory. '. sons or IS, w IC WI go In 0

. go to war With the Klan, If necessary, shortly, but first we need to stress that . .The local had been through It all be- to stop further such acts. the black unionists did not act as a The meetmg we had had With the black

fore. As recently as 1964 the men had He was frank about the local's history. unit. Although about 300 blacks helped strikebreakers revealed how they feltconducted a bitter wildcat strike. They "You have to understand the nature of to break the strike about 200 sup- about the whole business. One of theirsaw the 1967 walkout as just another in the South to understand it" he said 0 t d 't' supporters was Mrs. Susie Ruffin, a vet-. , . pre I.a series of battles between capital and "Because of this, we once had a sub- eran in the freedom movement and. nowlabor, and described it in those terms. local. All colored, with their own officers. The other ingredient needed for a a member of the Mississippi Freedom

As in the past, the workers felt that The different races did occasionally at- coalition is trust. And the black people Democratic Party (MFDP).their union would stand firm. They had tend each other's meetings. There were who refused to take part in the strike She is very militant but was opposedno doubt about the outcome. But one three colored workers on the negotiating simply did not trust the white members to the strike. She arranged for us tofactor had changed since 1964. This committee and they took part in contract of the union. meet some of the black strikebreakerswas the growing number and strength deliberations. When we talked with the black men in her home. They agreed to talk butof black workers and the efforts· of ilie "It wasn't integration; it wasn't seg- who went back to work, they said there only on condition that their names beromnpn" to pn"'Djnltln'..G...-_"~ ",_ J .J.....: __ ~ co·

Editor's Note: A recent strike in Laurel, Miss., between Local 5-443 of the Inter­national Woodworkers of America (lWA) and the Masonite Corporation points up whattrade-union experts "in the South have been saying for some time: -that industries inthe region plan to use divisions between white and black workers in a new way.

For several generations the owners of land and industry have kept political and eco­nomic control by getting white workers to believe they had an identity of interest withthe owners because of the color of their skin. At the same time, black workers werepushed to the lowest rung of the ladder.

Today, because of the new strength of black people and their movement for free­dom, employers can no longer keep them down. So the employers now try to convinceblack workers that they will do better by going along with management rather than withthe white workers.

The result is the same: - a division which benefits nobody but the employer. TheLaurel strike is typicaI because it also involves the question of automatic machines'replacing people; it also involves the continued moving of more industries into theSouth.

Robert Analavage, assistant "editor of The Southern Patriot, tells the story from thestandpoint of both the black and white workers. It is hoped that this analysis will helpall of us to understand the necessity for black-white unity in the struggle for economicand political democracy in America.

APRIL 1968 THE MOVEMENT PAGE 9

It looked more like a fortress than a factory

The MFDP StatelDentThe MFDP is investigating the strike in Laurel, Mississippi by the

International Woodworkers of America OWA) local against the Masonitecorporation, because this strike alf~ts every member of the MFDP inMississippi.

If Masonite can kill the union in Laurel, this will set back both Negroand white workers 30 years. Whatever the result of the strike, it will becopied by management and members of the Mississippi Management Asso­ciation to crush union organizing in Mississippi. Without unions, workingpeople can be fired without cause by management, they lose their right tocollective bargaining, better working conditions, higher wages and decentvacations with pay.

Members of both races are, working at Masonite and are also on strike.Masonite claims that the union is completely controlled by the KKK. Thisplaces Negro employees in the unfortunate IJosition of having to choosebetween the KKK or Masonite. This is too simple and too frightening tobe true.

It is to Mas'Onite's advantage to emphasize the KKK element in theunion. This keeps black and white workers apart. Since 1964 the union hasheld integrated meetings, yet it ~as only since the strike began in Aprilthat Masonite gave Negro workers many good jobs previously reservedfor whites'. But it is important to understand the history of t:he KKK'spower in Jones County. This power affects not only the union but Masoniteand every important economic and political institution in Jones County.

The FDP is and has always been on the side of FREE trade unionism.We refuse to swallow Masonite's claim of complete KKK control of theunion. We have found that labels, -whether Communist or KKK, preventpeople from thinking and cover up the real issues.

The Klan issue should not force Negro workers to reject unionism. Aman should not be deprived of his right to a job or a right to belong to aunion solely because he is a member of the KKK. Only if we protect therights of all men to freedom of association and speech, no matter howunpopular their cause, will our own rights be preserved. ..

ditionally, all strikebreakers will keeptheir jobs.

What is clear is that Masonite ex­ploited the social divisions between theunionists masterfully, like pawns in agiant chess game. Whether the sametactics will be used in other areas, asClaude Ramsey and E. K. Collins pre­dicted, seems hardly open to question.

The burning resentments of blackworkers exist everywhere; the failure,even the refusal, of some white work­ers to cope with this also exists every­where. If the tragedy of Laurel isnot to be repeated, this situation mustbe corrected.·

Blacks have said they will not initiateany reconciliation because they feel theyhave been betrayed too many times int.he past. Therefore, whites will have tomake the first move, Unity remains theworking men's only protection; other­wise they will continue to be the victims.

Masonite can now dictate conditionsand wages and, as the directors of thatcompany can tell you, it will be a longtime before the workers of Laurel willagain have the strength to challengethem....

to save as many jobs and as many bene­fits as possible under the circumstances.A preferential hiring list was set upfor those men still out at the time of thesettlement." (There were over 1,200 men,more than half of the local, still onstrike when the agreement was signed.)

As for the company's reorganizationplan, Roley said, "we'll try to resolve

. whatever we can."

Members of the local scoff at this.They described the agreement to me as"a sellout, a sweetheart contract."Sources within the local also say theyhave learned that the militants who ledthe strike will not be rehired-ever. Ad-

On December 12, 1967, after seven anda half months, the Laurel strike cameto an end. In San Francisco, an agree-'ment was reached between the. inter­national union, the Masonite Corp., andthe federal mediation service.

We happened to be in the Union hallthe day the agreement was announced.

"Ain't it a shame," one rank-and-filemember told us, "we don't even get tovote on it."

J. D. Jolly and the rest of local5-443's officials were removed fromoffice and the local was placed in trustee­ship, which meant that all property,finances and other assets of the localcame under the complete control of theinternationaL

A man of about 50 said, "one Qfthese days it's all coming to a 'headand it's going to be settled with guns.There's going to be one final battlebetween capital and labor."

The agreement was' explained to thePat1-1.ot by Ronald F. Roley, Portland,Ore., international president of theunion, on the ground that "our aim was

The Strike is Broken

"The colored workers (who went backto work) make up the numerical differ­ence and give the company hope-of win­ntng the strike," J oily said several weeksbefore the end of the strike.

We talked with people in SNCC, theMFDP and the Delta Ministry about thepossibility of working together to builda black-white coalition to aid the local.They all saw possibilities in the situa­tion, but were busy with other thingsthey felt were more important.

Two weeks before the strike ended, astatement did come from the MFDP,'which is made up almost wholly of blackpeople,

,.

The Strike ContinuesAs the strike continued, there were

bombings and at least five killings whichauthorities blamed on some of thestrikers. However, the black workerstold us that none of this was aimed atthem. The violence seemed directed atwhites breaking the strike.

At the height of the violence, the Mis­sissippi Highway Patrol sent extra mento Laurel and the National Guard wasplaced on alert.

Soon there were 900 men working inthe plant, which was reported workingat 45 per cent of capacity. The 900men were about equally divided amon/!white unionists who had returned towork. strikebreakers (white) broughtin from other areas, and DiacK union­ists who had refused to join the strike.

But Masonite was being hurt, AStandard & Poor's bulletin reported atthe end of the summer that there hadbeen a substantial decrease in ·Masoniteearnings due in part to strikes in Ohioand in Laurel. Star/danl & POO1"S alsostated that Masonite had sold more than210,000 acres of prime Mississippi tim­ber to St. Regis Paper Co. for $35 mil­lion.

company's side. They've had some badstrikes down there. If they destroy thislocal, unionism in Mississippi will be setback decades. Masonite laid a trap forthem and they walked right into it."

What the company had done was towin many allies in the black communityby upgrading a few blacks in the plantand ending segregation in the wash­rooms.

Minnis described how it worked inthe Patriot last month: "Thus whenmanagement was confident that it hadthe loyalty of enoug'h black workers itbegan upgrading black workers in away that was certain to drive thewhite workers into a wildcat."Jolly had told us that this very up­

grading of blacks had caused frictionwith the whites, but he also admittedthat the black men had previously "hadthe dirtiest, the filthiest, the roughestjobs."

However, Masonite is no crusader forthe rights of black people. It has a plant

in the Union of South Africa where itsblack workers are the most exploited inthe world. It also needs to Le pointedout that the company was simply com­plying with a U. S. Government OI;derwhen' it ended segregation in the wash­rooms.

Claude Ramsey arranged for us totalk with E. K. Collins, attorney forLocal 5-443. Collins is also state senatorfrom Jones County. He is most widelyknown to the civil-rights movement asattorney. for the regular DemocraticParty in Mississippi, which fought offthe challenge of the Mississippi Free­dom Democratic Party at the DemocraticNational Convention in Atlantic City in1964. He has a reputation for being astrong trade-union supporter.

"I signed the first union card in thisstate," he told us proudly. "I onceworked for John L. Lewis (of theUnited Mine Workers)." He said thatas a boy "I had a job carrying water forthe workers-white and colored."

Senator Collins said he had been oneof the original organizers of the Laurellocal and obtained its charter. "It wasthe first union chartei· in the state," headded.

The attorney said he agreed withRamsey),. -'charge of a conspiracy tobust alI unions in Mississippi. "Nodoubt about it," he declared. "If theybreak this union, the shipbuilders inPascagoula are next and after thatt'he paper mills in Natchez and MossPoint."

"You see, there are all kinds of com­panies up North that want to bringplants down South because of cheaplabor. And every Chamber of Commerceis backing them."

(We were also told that all elementsof the local power structure, includingthe Laurel Chamber of Commerce,backed Masonite in the strike; indeed,"the city attorney represents the com­pany in disputes with the workers.")

We asked Collins about the Klan ele­ments in Local 5-443. He said he hadevidence that there were 65 Klan mem­bers in the union, but he also pointed outthat the local had published a manifestoagainst the Klan in the Laurel news­paper.

In Jackson, where we talked withClaude Ramsey, head of the MississippiAFL-CIU, he gave us a larger perspec­tive on the Laurel strike. He saw theMasonite strike as part of a plan todestroy trade-unions in the state. Hebelieved the Mississippi Manufacturers'Association was involved.

"Masonite is the beginning of a pat­tern," he declared. "This local has al­ways been radical and a thorn in the

Setting a Pattern

They had supported strikes before, in­cluding wildcats. One man who hadwalked the picket line for six months in1964 said:

"What did it get us? Nothingchanged; we were still treated likesecond-class citizens, like niggers.Ain't no Negro union officials. There'sonly four black s'hop stewards, andthey don't have authority over whites."The union never asks us for help

until something like this comes up. Toput it right down, Negroes are just sickand tired of being fooled by whites. Butno more. I'm so tired of my people beingwalked on."

We asked another man what hethought about the union. Mrs. Ruffinbroke in: "It's a den of Kluxers." Theman agreed with her. Yet, when we randown a list of union officials, he and theothers referred to only one of them asa Klansman. They called all the localofficers "good· union men."

Herbert Ishee, the financial secretary,added: "There are some Klan on thenegotiating committee. They're goodunionists, pretty good boys, but I don'tbelieve in their politics."

As for the widely held belief in theblack community that the Klan con­trols the local, Jolly said: "Sure, wehave Klansmen in the local but theydon't control it. I'll fight anyone-anyoutside group-that tries to take overthis local."

We asked one of the black workerswhy he refused to take part in the strike.He said: "You know, after the CivilRights Act the company integrated thefacilities at the plant. Washrooms andshowers. The whites kicked up a fuss.

"I don't appreciate a man using me... saying we're together when there'sa strike and then kicking up a fuss be­cause we're using the same facilities.Another thing, the whites didn't evenconsult us when this strike began. Notone word, like they figured we'd supportit anyway. I didn't desert the union;the union deserted me."

None of the black workers consideredthemselves anti-union. They said: "Aworker has to be in a union for his ownsecurity. We have good wages and jobsecurity only because of the union'swork."

However, all of them were highlycritical of Local 5-44:' for allowing seg­regated job classifications. They all saidthey wanted to stay in the union, "ifonly it would change."

We asked them if they would be will­ing to meet with the white unionists totry to work out such differences. Withthe balance of power they held in thisstrike, there was a possibility they couldwin concessions they wanted from thelocal, since the whites had now seen theneed for unity.

If an understanding was reached be­tween the two groups, it could be guar­anteed by the strength of the blacks;the white workers would know that onlyunited action would bring gains fromthe company in future disputes.

Here was shown the need for a blackcaucus within the union. Blacks haveusually mistrusted white people insimilar situations because so manypromises have been made and t'henbroken w'hen the black people wereno longer considered necessary. Acaucus within the union would makesure that there would be no back­sliding on promises made and agree­ments reached between the black andwhite workers.However, this did not appear to be in

the minds of the black people, as re­flected by these comments:

Mrs. Ruffin-"If only those white peo­ple would come to us equal and bar­gain...."

A worker-"I've seen something ofthese whites for years. They can't betrusted. I see no reason to talk withthem."

Another worker-"If they would cometo us and ask us like men."

PAGE 10 THE MOVEMENT A PRJ L 19Ei8-

GITLIN ON CUBA CON'J fROM PAGE 1

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The Nationcl! Comnliinity ,-nion ismaking ,I\aildhle bulk hundles of tl'eN.C.L. special edition of the f.Irin:.::Line i'\ewspaper for frec distribu­tiun to campuses, church, elnd lallurgroups.

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Ill. 6()622.

event had become part of a commonheritage, passed on along the chain of gen­erations.

It is painfully clear that America is notblessed with the kind of continuous revo­lutionary his tor y which many Cubanspossess as their own, and possessed longbefore the revolution. Radical historiansare helping us invent our history, but fornow that history usually seems to comefrom outside ourselves. No only do theschools cheat us. not only is :\mericairr.ponderably huge, but too many Al'leri­cans have learned to deny their history,needing to believe that they stand some··how outside the past. Radicals are seenas upstarts, new arrivals, (How manyChicagoans would attend an anniversaryremembrance of the I laymarket Riot? I lowmany in Pittsbur~h have even heard of theI fomestead Strike?). His tor y somehowstopped as .\merica ascended to w.)rldpower. TIlis \merica is So frightfully mod­ern it sometimes seems not to h.lve a Pdstat all. 131acks and :\lexican-:\merkanssho\\" us differently. but voyeuristic historyis no history at all.

Our own cclebrations are not enougl~ andthey are nesicle my point. 1'\01' will it helpto bemoan the sad and stllbborn ignoranceof the .\mericans, sad and stubborn as it is.The simple and obvious but striking pointabout the Cuhdn revolution is that its con­tinuous history f1.\0 TO BE :\L\DE, over,mel over and over a.gain. The Vietnamesercvolution in its present phase may bedolted from the founding of the lndochi­nesc COIlllT1uni"t Party in 1930, Years ofwork in IJIC:;e S.\! \ LL cOlllltrjes were necJ­cd. ohjectl\ e conditions aside. La sharpen aPOl'ulclr con:-;cillusness which could sustain,I l\ehel .\rrm or a National LiberationFront. or ,lilY other or'~anjzatilln form forthat matter. 111e ene Ill) cannot be re lied onto make our history ,Ind sprcad our alter­IIdtl\e.~, and \\'eoll'enllISlllll'l\ creatures ofevents,

It will he SaI<l tliclt \\e have no tillle,Truc enlluc!lJ: tlie n,:spllll~ihllil\ fot' stelk­Ill" lliit our IJ ist,iL'\ IS C\"<.;r\ cla\. [Jut we donllt CIJlllinolLc timc h\ cur,.,im.: it, and wcmu,.,t find ways of li\ inc: IH:!'Cnq withinI',llicn,'c:, p'ItI<':IlCe \\"ltllin urL'el1,·\ .•

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\triumph in 1959, many veterans of the26th-of-July Movement suffered the para­lysis and collapse which follow on over­work and unexpected victory.)

The Cubans even used the same term:Ql:EM.\RSE, literally "to burn oneself.".\gain, the conditions are dramatically dif­ferent for us, bllt it might help to knowthat we are not the first movement in his­tory to have felt the very personal painsof treadwill and uncertainty.

LESSON #5: Revolution h3S a history.tvlen haV'e spread the feeling of the need,and limits of its program, without havingto believe that revoilition would come to­IJlOrrOW, and in so doing they have raisedand cleared the sights of common people.e\ en in times of the most shrunken pos­s ibi lities.

This year. one of the common hill­bOolrds in f lavana reads' '1868-1968: 100\T.\RS OF STRLC(;LC.·' This is no glibrhetoric, TIle Ten Ye.lr \\'..11' for Indepen­dence beg'ln in 1868. under the leadershipof the black .\ntunio 0.1elceo. Pe.'santsand tml"llspeuple attacked the Spdnish gar-

,rison of [)ayclITlO. a town in Oriente(traditiondlh' the most revolutionary pro­\ ince). TIle Span ish retreated from thc city,I nd regruuped. and the rebels knew theywould hel\'e to ahandon their conquest. Ha­ther than relUrn it to Sp.lllish hanJs. theyburned iL to the L'rouncl.

I h.lJlpened to pass throuL'h !layanlO onthe cenrcnolry ni~ht of the burnine>. Uan­uary 12 I. ;'\o\\" a city of 80.UilO. thin!1,1 1';.':eo' 1 in Oriente. [3elyamo is \'isihly t\\"()hundred \'eal:;; ne\\'er, iess haked and faded.tholn l"Ulllp,n'oIhle cities. Tens ofth()LI.~dnds

pf P<':Ul'le fniiTl III iles :lI-'lllnd L'athered th,ltnl~ht in Lhe P/'17.l de la I{e\'olilclon (I wei:"tuld it !ud heen known 11\ that name C\'enhefure 1').:;1)1. \t the e.\CIl'l huul' Ilrc­(ToI"k(;r~ \\(,I"e set uff frorll Ihc 1·"ufLOpS.o.;\rTi"oll/in:~ the hlll'ninc:. I'C,I"dllls l'(lde.11'llllnd Ihe o.;lju,ll·e hl'oIlldi.~llInc: 111,I('hete~.

\ U·.rdill"Il'11 f'e.hant l'c\olulinn.tr'\ o.;ong\\ ,I ~ pl.I\·ed fr"l!l a loudspeaker . .lnd that\\,1, ,Ill ·-nu p"lili,'dl spc(;,·he.~ \\cre nec­es~:n·\· I illl.L~IIlC e\ en IlI"SI chi [dren klle\\\'. h,1I tl,(; ,'e!ebroltion \US ,Ill oIhout. 11111

C\ (;11 befurc r(;\ olul ion,It'\ history h.ld been'u thoroughly dl,,.,,,,'bed into CdUC,lt lOll. I!,e

neutralizing that one - we sometimesassume that this is everyone's eternalresponsibility, and our sole METIIOD oforgalllzlllg. (On the need for politicalprogress, see Staughton Lynd. "TIle GoodSociety," TI1E GUARDL\N, February 171.

Cuba also stands as a model of what itis this system wants to discredit and de­stray. That sheer huge fact should not be­come our politics, but must never be ab-sent from them. •

LESSON 112: Vast bureaucracy is not aninevitable, uncombattable feGture of eco­nomic development. The two-year Cam­paign Against It sent thousands of seat­warmers into productive work and intolocal branches of national structlires. Itturned out that the larger bureaucracieswere not necessarily the m"~t efficient:often the way round..\nd point was notsimply to meet the lahar shortal,'e ~lnd

to implant manual skills but to vitalizelocal life and m'lltiply centers of initia­tive. The entire central Su~ar :\linistry isnow run with a staff of 30; the :\linistryof Interior Commerce, which supervi.~es

all stores and the distribution of goods,was cut in one yed'r from 2000 to 80;the Ministry of Cduc.ltion, from 1250 to250. The flow of pap~r hoIS becn elimina­ted where possible. :\I;l~azines are pub­lished with very small, hard-worki n~staffs, and some enterprises (like Edu­cGtion) encour.lge their st.tffs to do theirown typing. so that secretaries may hefreed to become teachers.

Radicals have often concedeJ that hu­reaucr;ltic top-down methods, thou~h de­huamnizing, are after all more effkient,Perhaps we give away half the P·ollllC.The Cubans seem to be IllO\ inL' tmvolrdmodels of organization -frcl'.cil<.:.ls the\are - that begin to enact thcir \'cl1ue~

and still get the job done, The ]1['()CCS5 I,.,only just be.~un and encountcrs ob"tadc~.

but it is valued and emphdsized at Lhehighest and the lowest levcls. !. ;o,:l'e,·t.l­tions are raised: people lc.lril to he "I'"appointed if institutions hecofTl? de,ldelle,:and unresponsivc. (The llli)SL !'0l'uLtr ("11-·ban film lhlS been TIIC DI·,.\TII tll· \BCRE.\l:CR,\T.)

We could be}' in. it SCems to lllC h\scrutinizin~ the operations of some of "IIL­own movement offices,

LESSOi\: /{3: TIle proJuctive proce",s j"perhaps not dlltOmdtically opaque to work­ers and peoplc in generelL In f.lcwries ,Iudstage enterprises, some workers arechosen by the elssembled workers fortraining as m..l nagel's. (Subsequently re­lations are someti mes estram;ed: CubaIS yet to devise viral mechdnisms to nlai n­tain responsihi lity.) Speciell ni~ht schoolsfor workers and peasdnts teddl the re­lations betwecn or:e pclrticulelr job andthe factory. between the factOr) ,Ind theindustry, between the industry a nd theCubeln economy, betwecn the Cuban eco­nom:,' and the economy of the world. (Iasked a Party administrator in one ofthese schools whether he used speechcsof fidel and Che in teaching this lastsubject. "Cenerally not," he said.• 'Weuse I'NESCO materials.") Tcchnical anden.V:ineer ing students di vide their ti mebetween school and the factories, wherethey work alongside ordinary workers andoffer technical assistance for innovations.Gradually an entire population is t.lughtto feel competent with technique.

Clearly all this is possible largely be­cause of the primitive state of the eco­nomy - the complex Westcrn division oflabor has not had time to develop -andbecause of the commun,l1 spirit of work:most people \\',\i'\T to know, technicaleduceltion is emphasized, they have a rea­son for efficiency. !3ut how l.lrgely?Radi­Cells should not flinch and automdticallyGR,\NT th.1t the overdeveloped economydenies us these pOSSibilities.

LESSOi\: 1/4: Our closest brothers .lIldsisters are not the only ones who helverun the risk of burning out. TIle Cubanmovement went through such a phase,when much work seemed hopeless, retri­bution W,IS daily. and the process of build­ing the mov,ement was impossible to meels­ure: from the time of the attack on i\lon­cada Barr.lcks Uuly 1953) to the lallLlingof the GR.\1'\i\I.\ (December 1956). Despairwas relther qUickly cut short by deliver­ance, the sort of deliverance we had bet­ter not count on. (Later, JUSt -after the

NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWSI ley, folks; we talk. about news ,Ind

analysis from inside the i\lovement, butsuch stuff has to be written by peoplewho .\ RC inside the i\lovement. We needto hClr from more :\Iovement peopleabout whdt'S '1appening around the coun­try. Doesn't need to be elaborate, justa letter about your area. The real worthof TIIC' l\10VCi\ICNT depends on thepeople who write for it. Let us hearfrom you. TIIC :\10VE:\IENT, 449 14thSt., S,ln Fr.lncisco, Calif. 94103.

Bourgeois Legality

schools, and Cubans who have studiedhis work were astounded to hear thatsome Americans treat him as a prophetof race.

When they try to think back before theirtriumph, to gather some image of capi­talism by which they might measure theinternal life of the U.S., Cubans remem­ber org.lnized torture, a censored press,Batista's usurpation of power before the1952 elections, and othe:( blatant signsof oppression. They assume Americancapitalism to have this uniform quality.l\"ews of .\merica in the press is newsof comb.ll - Viet Nam, counter-revolu­tion, mdcrnpolitics. demonstr3tions, po­litical drrests. the assaults on blackpeoplc - dnd this reality is often takento the Ei'\TlRE .\merican reality.

Thrcc editors of the Young Commun­ists' evenin~ newspdper, circulation 70,000, asked why the U.S. government tol­erated radical publicdtions. TIle conceptof bourgeois legality, of formal if em­battled civil rights, was new to them.Never mind that these rights are com­ing to be more honored on paper than inprdctice, that their political function is totame oPPosition. The point is that the veryide..l of Western civil'liberties came as asurpr ise.

On the other hand, government officialsand some students are less mystified. (Yeteven the sharpest and best informed havetrouble comprehending hippies. Or theyunderstand without understanding. How­ever, elaborately they are told of theemptiness of midd Ie -class life ,lIldculture and the agony of durable radicalpolitics, they give way to M.\CHlSMO,insisting that long hair is ., SiSSY.") Whatthey can understand at once is that stra­tegies lor the liberation of Latin ,\mericaare not designed for advanced industrial­ized societies. TI1ey were astonished anddepressed that radical ,\mericans wereransacking Regis Debray's REVOLUTIONIN THE REVOLUTION?, eagerly under­lining passages and inscribing marginalschemes' as if Debray were speaking toTHEM. To informed Cubans it was per­fectly clear that Debray' s proposals flow­ed directly from an analysis of Latin.\merican pOSSibilities. It was unimagin­able that ..lnyonc might mistake these for.\merican conditions, siphoning Debrayinto a re..llity he hadn't the slightest in­tention of beginning to describe. How couldwould-be revolutionaries so easily aban­dOll their common sense - and so me­chanically? (Despair is the C.\USE, butin these times it is no good RE.\SOf\ .ltall.) .\ comical mystery for them, .l tr.lg­edy for us.

LESSON Ill: I1uman beings are noteverywhere and for all time preventedfrom building something decent. Recon­struction and moral incentives at theheart of the social process are not in­escapably Utopicln. Tltis is said not tocall for a transplanting of the Cubanre',olution, nor to suggest thdt we wouldW.lnt to do things the Cuban way, butsimply to hearten ,\merican radic.lls whomhdrd experience has maJe bitter. TheCnbdns would be first to su~gest thatTIICY do not tread p.lths marked out byother countries. l3ut we are so attunedto the need to destroy the institutions ofempire and degrad.ltion - and indeed Ibelieve these are the m.ljor orders of theday: stopping this atrocious institution,

Lessons, But Not For Copy-Books

APRIL 1968 THE MOVEMENT PAGE 11

SEALE ON BLACK LIBERATION ----_._------ CaN'T fROM PAGE 3

NOTE TO AMERICA:

A LETTER FROM RAP BROWNParrish Prison

New Orleans, La.February 21, 1968

If it takes 'my death to organize my people to revolt against you and to organize yourjails to revolt against you, and to organize your troops to revolt against you, and toorganize Y0!-1r children, your God, your poor, your country, and to organize man­kind to rejoice in your destruction and ruin, then here is my life, BUT, MY SOULBELONGS 1D MY PEOPLEI

LASlME TUSHINDE MBlLASHAKAI (Translated from Swahili:)WE SHALL CONQUER

WITHOUT A DOUBT

PowerThe Vietnamese have had political de­

cisions made in their country and they'vedisagreed with them. So they said no, we'regoing to defend ourselves right here on ourown land and we want you to withdraw fromour land. Now, we can parallel the situa­tion When we see all these racist copsiR our community the way they are. Butremember, that's only point seven of theprogram. But here is the key to deter­mine to deal with what real power is.Power starts here. When people startsaying that green power is where it'sat, let me hip you to something thatbrother Huey P. Newton knew. He saidthat during the Civil War there was theNorth and there was the South. The Northhad yankee money - green power, sup­posedly - and the South had Confederatemoney - green power - supposedly.He said, but when the North out number­ed the South, and the North had all theguns, they said "your money ain't no moregood. You don't even have no more money.So I'm saying, that the money is just thetool by which you manipulate the power.That's all.

The real power is manifested in thepolice forces, the National Guardsmen,the racists who come down and occupyBlack people in the community, to maintaintheir presence ang to try to make usdupes. That we in our home, and I'msaying every black person in this house,ever)' last one of you, put a shotgun inyour home. Put a shotgun in your home.Yes sir, we must begin to deal with poli­tics that way.

PoliticsBecause Huey also says that politics is

war without bloodshed. But war is poli­tics with bloodshed. Let's get down to alittle nitty-gritty here and see what ishappening here. You have two kinds ofcontradictions: Antagonistic contradic­tions, where there's fighting and wherethere's bloodshed, and you have non­antagonistic contradictions where there'sarguing and debate. Now I'm pretty surethat Black people would prefer to havenon-antagonastic contradictions. Butwhat's happened here? When the Man es­calates his police forces and doubles andtriples them, and murders Black peoplein the community, and shooting them down,that isn't non-antagonistic. That's v e r yupon us. This is very, very important tounderstand where the politics lie. We de­sire, by defending ourselves andourcom- .munity, by every man haVing a shotgunin his home, we desire non-antagonisticcontradictions. But we must defend our­selves. We must organize; we must respectthe kind of fashion that it's the man be­hind the gun who's dangerous, and thereare' thousands and thousands of cops inthis country who are very, very danger­ous for the Black community. So let'scome to the surface and think. Let's comeup to the sense of the whole situation.

Black people in this country, war hasbeen made upon you. Black people don't sitdown and say, "Oh, nothing's going tohappen," Don't sit down and let a spon­taneous riot happen in the streets, wherewe get corraUedand a lot of us shot upunorganized and spontaneous. Black peo­ple, organize. And, Black leaders ...you got them up here. I want to try tocontribute to the leadership. I was forcedout here and it's necessary for me to do itand I'm going to do my job. I'm sayingthat Black leadership's h~re and let thepolitical power structure know where it'sa't and the changes that we want and thatif it doesn't happen, then YOU will causethe political consequences in an organizedfashion. The Man doesn't have us out­numbered, he has us outorganized. Comeon now.

Now, let's go back to our brother Huey.Concerning the situation, all right brothersand sisters, I want to say this herel FreeHuey, Black power, Black power, you arethe power, the Black power to free Huey.So Jet's stand together, let's free Huey.I want to thank you. •

to make you ac c e p t those political de­cisions made when you try to disagree.

')F'/~a~ YSETJ8 .. ICAP.

BREAK OUT &DO IT NOWa speech by Mike James, JOIN Com­munity Union, given at the ChicagoColiseum, Spring '66. Now in pamphlet- 101. Write THE MOVEMENT. Goodstuff!

Black people live all across this country,they've doubled, trippled and quadrupledtheir police force, eqUipped them wit htanks, and all that -uh-uh, we got to stop'it brother, let's get together and unify.

SurVival

Brother Huey was concerned about thenature of the survival of Black people.That's why tonight and your standing sup­port we are all going to be concerned abouthim. I saw a picture in the paper whereone sister had a sign which said "Comesee about Huey." And so every courtdate I want everybody in this house tocome see about Huey at that courthouse'and bring our friends to free Huey I

We got to learn to speak to what happensout there. When we go to the court, wherethis brother got busted, you walk up to themunicipal court, and I know a lot of youngguys there, walk up in that court, do youknow what you see in that court - 90'%black people and the other ones who ain'tblack are poor whites and our Mexicanbrothers. Do they stop people in Pied­mont brutalizinp- and intimidating them?

We must begin to neutralize theirpolice force. In fact, we're in a pOSitionthen to demand that they withdraw fromour communities because they occupy ourcommunity just liKe a fo'reign troop occupy­ing a territory. Very important to under­stand. This is a political speech for

.Brother Huey. And see how basic it is?,It's not hard to understand at all. Every

- time the power structure makes a politicaldecision upon any group of people, if thepeople disagree with the political decisionthat the power structure has made uponthem, then the power structure gets guns,and force, and billy clubs, starts doublingand tripling the police force;and that is all

If you are going to be a graduate studentand want to work on movement problemsconcerned with communication, you maybe interested in the ••• very fluid ••• grad­uate program in communications at thl;'University of Saskatchewan, Regina, Sas­katchewan, Canada. If so, drop a line fordetails to Bill Livant, Division of SocialSciences at the University.

GRADSTUDENTPROGRAAT SASKATCHEWAN

Being a man is the continuing battle of one's life; one loses a bit of manhoodwith every stale compromise to the authority of any power in which one does not be­lieve.

No slave should die a natural death. There is a point where caution ends andcowardice begins. .

For every day I am imprisoned I will refuse both food and water. My hunger isfor the liberation of my people, My thirst is for the ending of oppression.

I am a politiCal prisoner, jailed for my. beliefs - that black people must befree. The government has taken a pOSition true to its fascist nature: those whocannot convert, they must silence. This government has become the enemy ofn:tankind.

This car no longer alter our path to freedom, For our people, death has been theonly known exit from slavery and oppression. We must open others. ---­• Our will to live must no longer supersede our will to fight, for our fighting wiDdetermine if our race shall live, To desire freedom is not enough,

We must move from resistance to aggression, from revolt to revolution.For every Orangeburg, there must be ten Detroits. For every Max Stanford and

Huey, Newton, there must be ten dead racist cops, And for every black death,there must be Dien Bien Phu.

Brothers and Sisters, and all oppressed people, we must prepare ourselves bothmentally and physically, for the major confrontation is yet to come. We mist fight.It is the people who in the final analysis make and determine history, not leadersor systems. The law which govern us must be made by us.

May the deaths of '68 signal the beginning of the end of this country. I do what Imust out of the love for my people. My will is to fight. Resistance is not enough:aggression is the order of the day.

we're going to have to change the situa­tion now, we're going to put a street lightup early 1968; now they don't like thePanthers messing with them nohow.

About RacismWhen the Man walks up and says that

we're anti-white, I scratch my head andI say listen, anti-white, what do youmean by that? He says why I mean youhate white people. I say, me? hate a whiteperson? I say wait a minute man, let'shave a look at this. That's your game.That's the Ku Klux Klan's game. I'saythat is the Ku Klux Klan's game to hateme, and murder me because of the colorof my skin. I say I wouldn't murder a per­son or brutalize him because of the colorof his skin; I say yeah, we hate somethingall right. We hate the oppression that welive in. We hate cops beating black peopleover the heads and murdering us. That'swhat we hate. So if you got enough energyto get down and hate a white person justbecau'se of the color of his skin, you'rewasting a lot of energy and you bettertake that same energy and put it intomotion out there, because you know thatthose oppressors mean business.

Black people, we are organizing to STO Pracism, you dig it? When you stop racism,you stop brutality to murder black peopleby the racist occupying armyin our Blackcommunity - that's what we're going tostop: what's being done to lis. You dig it?Can you dig the w1,lite power structure ­'that racist police force - and how they'veescalated the. situation ? That before Wattsthere were 1,300 cops, now there's 6,000cops patrolling ·Black people; that in Oak­land they had 350 cops just three and a halfyears ago and now they've got a thousandcops patrolling Black people. San Fran­cisco's doubled its police force and everyarea of every major metropolis where

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to defend his home. It was necessary tobring to Black people the understandingthat they were going to have to standin defense of rights of community, of thechildren, of your mothers, of our young,we have to defend ourselves starting withpoint number seven, because we don't endself-defense there. Because Huey says westill have to defend ourselves against thegross unemployment we're subjected to,against the indecent housing we're sub­jected to, against the indecent educationwe receive, against the way Black menare jacked off into military service afterhe fought in the Civil War (150,000); inWorld War I (350,000), World War II(850,000) and all the way down to theKorean yonflict and now we got this jiveVietnam war and sending our Blackbrothers off to war at 90 miles an hourand we say uh, uh. They've been promisingus things all these years and we say No.That's avery, very important point.Every Black man' in his house shouldbe against the War in Vietnam. He'sgot to be.

Huey brought it down to 'a practicallevel. When Huey organized his brothers,he didn't just run them out into thestreet with a zero understanding. Hueysat those brothers down and told them 12basic points of law and how to exerciseconstitutional rights. Huey sat thosebrothers down and talked to them. Hueytaught those brothers that it wasn't a gun'that was dangerous; it's the person behindit that's dangerous. Very important. Hueytaught the brothers the safety of thoseweapons. You haven't heard of one BlackPanther shooting another Black Panther.But for information ':' in one appearancein court, Charles Garry, the lawyer, hesai<1 that one cop down there shot theother cop where Huey was.

Now look, The Blc>ck Panther Party forSelf Defense is a revolutionary party.Revolution means that you got to get downto the nitty gritty and change the Situationthat we're in but don't miss any nits orany grits. That's very, vfry important.

More Than Cops

We're also struggling to show you thatit wasn't only the cops, that it has to dowith many other things - like a streetlifht at Market and 55th St. Three kidscoming from Washington had been killedtwo years prior. We got us a povertyprogram to get a street light out hereand if you don't put a street light outhere, the Panthers are going to getright out there and we're going to directtraffic, and we tie up traffic, then traffic'sjust going to get tied up. Our kids aren'tgoing to get killed. We shot a petition in,in conjunction with the members of the'area there to the city council and theysaid some back talk about, oh we can'tput one up until late 1968. We said, no,

PAGE 12 THE MOVEMENT APRIL 1968

'AMERICA, AMERICAAugust 1964 marked the end of an era.

It happened at the Democratic Conventionat Atlantic City when the MississippiFreedom Democratic Party challengedthe Mississippi Democratic Party dele­gation and was rebuffed. It was then thatthe civil rights movemem died. All whoparticipated i.n. the MFDP chal1enge andwatched Reuther. Humphrey and the restof the liberal establishment maneuver toget the MFDP to accept a compromiseknew that the last door for a non-violent.legal redress of grievances had beenclosed.

August 1968 marks the end of anotherera. In the four years between the Augusts.the nation has be~n an uprising -from theghetto. from the. campuses. from thelabor ranl.<-and-file who have involved the·nation in one crippling strike after another.The Democratic Convention this year willbe the scene for a major confrontationaround the issue of Vietnam. Just whatform the confrontation will take and whatthe outcome of it will be are still mattersof conjecture.

There is always a heightened interestin politics during an election year. Twicea decade Americans are given the oppor­tunity to express their wishes about howthis country is run. Eisenhower was votedinto office on the slogan that' 'It's Timefor a Change." Kennedy offered"The NewFrontier" . as an alternative to Eisen­hower's i'change." and Johnson offeredto take us beyond the new frontiers into"The Great Society."

What we are being offered this time arenot slogans. but the cries of desperatemen. Nixon and Romney (until his with­drawal from the race) paint pictures of

impending doom. both from within andwithout. Romney offered the good oldAmerican home remedy of prayer as thesolution. Nixon ofters Nixon. Then thereis George Wallace. whom no one shouldregard lightly. He offers some good~down­

home Alabama-style American fascism_to take care of blacks. intellectuals.

"peaceniks." and "hippies:' And he justmight get the chance. On the Democraticside, Johnson is assured of the nomina­tion. The only challenge to him comes fromEugene McCarthy, who is running for thenomination on his opposition to the Viet­nam war.

Peace Movement &McCarthyFor many involved in the peace move­

ment. McCarthy's opposition to the waris enougJi for them to actively supporthim. Even long-time political radicals.who should know better, are supportingMcCarthy. The interest that the peacemovement is taking in McCarthy tells usmore about the peace movement than itdoes about McCarthy, for whom littlepositive can .be s.aid. Because his can­didacy has stirred such interest. it is

-indicative of the fact that the peace move­memo with its bourgeois and student com­position. would rather follow any illusoryhope rather than face the reality that asystem capable of waging a war in Viet­nam is incapable of reforming itself; lfone were paranoid enough. he might thinkthat MCCarthy's candidacy was a deliber­ate maneuver calculated to subvert agood section of the peace movement. forthat is the main effect of his seeking thenomination.

Even if one feels that any significantchange can come through involvement inelectoral politics. McCarthy is hardly analternativ~ to Johnson. His only virtueis his opposition to the war. When one con­siders the fact that to be' opposed to thewar is merely an indication of a modicumof common sense (and how common senseshines like heroism when everyone elseis insane), then the interest in McCarthyseems out of proportion to what the man hasto offer. He is a conservativ·e Demo­crat (i.e•• a liberal Republican turnedupside down) whose voting record in theSenate is conSistent with representingthe State of Minnesota., a mid-westernagricultural state.

The interest. in McCarthy is a reflec­tion of the desperation and frustrationthat many feel at this critical time.There have been countless demonstra­tions: therevenue of The New York Timeshas increased many-fold from the adsplaced in it stating opposition to the war:many are coming down with a skin ail­ment known as picket-sign-itis. Yet.each large demonstration is counteredwith more troops going to Vietnam andthe conflict being intenSified. Althoughthe demonstrations have 'been good forthose who have participated in them.their effect on U.S. policy has been nil.Thus. people are frustrated, demoralizedand dissatisfied. Out of despair they areattracted to Senator ....McCarthy. a manwho has not even advocated a pOSition onVietnam, i.e. immediate withdrawal. grad­ual withdrawal. etc. He's just a man whodoesn't like the 'far.

Short MemoryThe peace movement is not only suffer­

ing from frustration. but from a shortmemory. In the early Sixties. there was

much excitement over a Harvard profes­s or, H. Stuart Hughes, one of the first ofthe intellectual community to be opposed tothe war. He ran for office. with peacemovement support, lost and diSappeared.The war went on. Then Senator WayneMorse became the hero. Although he didn'trun for President. the peace movementtried to make him its leader and failed.For a brief few months another professor.the UniverSity of Chicago's Hans Mor­genthau was the hero with his appearancesat teach-ins opposing the war. He, too,.disappeared and the war went on. Some­where in between all that. Staughton Lyndassumed a leadership position of sorts,but he too faded and the war went on.Then came Dr. Spock, who has asked thecourts for permission to retire to hisyacht in the Caribbean. until his trial.Now along comes Senator McCarthy andhopes rise once rrore.

lf the peace movement had any otherclear position except that it doesn't like thewar in Vietnam, the McCarthy candidacywould stir no interest. Because the peacemovement is divided over the effectivenessof electoral politics, because its pOSitionagainst the war is one of vague morality,it is in the dangerous pOSition of haVingits energy ..nd limited resources drainedby McCarthy. The McCarthy campaignsymboijzes a dead-end street that hasbeen gone down many tirres in the pastfour years. It should be clear by now thatthere is no redress of grievances throughthe democratic political process. Thiswas made evident at the 1964 DemocraticConvention. Yet a large number of good,and well-meaning people cling to the dreamthat justice will come to America from anews conference on the steps of the WhiteHouse. It is a dream that if indulged in anylonger will become fatal for the dreamer.

Julius Lester

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NAACP BoycottThe NAACP has organized,a boycott of

white businesses in Orangeburg. Though ithas been generally successful. the Afro­American News S e r vic e reports thatNAACP mass meetings have been disrupt­ed by black people and that much of theblack community feels the organization'sdemands are not tar-reaching enough andthat its tactics do not match the communi­ty~s anger and militancy.

Demonstrations in support of theOrangeburg students have been held atmore than 20 black colleges and includedan uprising in Durham, N.C. where stu­dents threw bricks and trash cans throughdowntown windows after police openedfire on their demonstration.

Orangeburg is only the latest in a seriesof police attacks on black college communi­ties. In the spring of 1967 cops invadedTexas Southern, fired into dormitories,arrested 280 students then charged fivestudents with murdering a policeman whohad been hit by a ricocheting bullet. (Theirtrials started this week.) Central State.Howard, and the reign of terror in Nash­ville last month are other examples.

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shot in the back. Forty to fifty more stu­dents were wounded, an unknown ilUm­ber beaten. Most of the wounded had tofind rides out of town to be treated ­the local hospital refused.

The three dead are Sam Hammon, 18.killed outright by a blast of gunfire:Delano Middleton, 17, who died an hourafter he was wounded while trying to shielda friend: and Henry Smith,· 18, who wasshot and then beaten.

Sellers was wounded in the arm. He wasarrested in the school infirmary wbere he.had gone for treatment and charged withinciting to riot'and assaulting an officer.His bail, originally set at $50.000 dollarswas lowered to $20,000, still too high toget . him out. (!be desperately neededmoney for Sellers and the other studentsin jail may be sent to Cleve Sellers De­fense Fund, 360 Nelson St. S.W., Atlanta,Georgia 30313).

Guardsmen' continue to control Orange­burg. In a message from jail, Sellers urgedblack student groups to send some messageof support to their fellow stUdents, sincethey have been completely isolated and areleft alone to deal with the police ofOrange­burg and the state and the NationalGuard.

ADDRESS

CITY

== lAME

SEID ONE TO A fllEIIDI

IiIAnT POSTERS!

Bonfire MassacreOn Thursday night a rally was held on the

campus, and a bonfire was lit. When theysaw the fire, the 200 9uardsmen and 100state and city cops poised around the cam­pus moved in. They opened fire on thecrowd, which was unarmed, and murderedthree students. Two of the dead were

Bowling AlleyThe trouble began on February 5 when

students from South Carolina State Collegewere turned away from an all-white bowl­ing alley they were attempting to deseg­regate. When they returned to the bowlingalley the next day 20 students were arrest­ed. Word circulated on campus and 600students went to the shopping centerwhere the bowling alley is located, de­manding that those arrested be released.About 150 cops were called to the scene.The jailed demonstrators were released,but as the. rally broke up cops started tobeat a number of women. The crowd re­sponded by smashing windows of whiteowned stores. Twenty were hospitalized.

On February 7 city and state policesurrounded the schools and invaded thecampuses. Several students were beatenby cO;Js. That evening local whites drove

·through the campus shooting. In town,whites attacked black owned stores. Gov­ernor Robert McNair: used a fire in theblack section of the city as a pretext toalert the National Guard. On the 8th, themorning of the massacre; state trooperscordoned off Orangeburg: all incomingtraffic was rerouted around the town.Agents of the South Carolina Law En­forcement Division ~CLED), asemi-sec­ret intelligence force of the state police,poured into town and onto the campus. SixSCLED cars were par ked in front ofCleveland Sellers' home. From the begin­ning of the trouble newsmen had focusedon Sellers - who was recently sentencedto five years in prison for refusing in­duction - setting him up as the" agitator"responsible. Sellers decided it was un­safe to remain in his house alone, so hewent to the campus where a series ofmeetings was being held by the students.

ORANGEBURG, S.C. - Eight years ago Chuck McDew, SNCC's second chairman, ledstudent demonstrations to desegregate public accommodations in Orangeburg. The dem­onstrators were herded into a compound outside the city jail and hosed. Times havechanged, a little. Last month students attempted to desegregate a bowling alley inOrangeburg. They were fired on by the ·National Guard, three young black men werekilled, ten hospitalized with bullet wounds, and 30 jailed. Cleveland Sellers, a SNCCstaff member who lives in Orangeburg is being held on $20,000 bail on a trumped-upcharge of inciting to riot.

The mass media have attempted "to paint a picture of necessary force used againsta riot. That's their new thing when black folks are shot. In fact, the shooting was anunprovoked massacre of an unarmed protest rally.

SLAUGHTER INSOUTH CAROLINA